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sE:Ee/3:s/d:oisrs 



Tlie IPa^ra^lDles : 



The Late REY. WILLIAM DAVIDSON, D. D., 

Pastor of the United Presbyterian Church, 

OF HAMILTON, OHIO. 



WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY ON THE CHARACTER. OF THE 

AUTHOR AS A PREACHER, PASTOR, AND ORATOR, BY REV. 

JOHN Y^/SC50ULLER, D. D., AND A BIOGRAPHICAL 

SKETCH BY HON. D. W. McCLUNG, 



'^-^ L ■ . EDITED BY 

/ Rev. D. MacDILL, D. D., 

Professor of Philosophy in Monmouth College. 



CINCINNATI: 

WESTERN TRACT SOCIETY, 






[ife'/^l 



ir 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 

WESTERN TRACT SOCIETY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. 

Stereotyped by Ogden, Campbell & Co., Cincinnati* 



The Library 

OF Congress 

WASHINGTiOlf 



CONTENTS 



PAGE. 

Preface, ---- -- 3 

Essay on Author's Character as Preacher, Pastor, and Orator, 7 

Biographical Sketch of the Author, 12 

Sermon I. The Sower, - 28 

II. The Tares and the Wheat, ... 56 

III. <« «« << << a ... 80 

IV. The Mustard Seed, - - ^- - - 95 
V. The Leaven, 115 

YL <c cc ...... 133 

VII. The Hid Treasure and the Pearl, - - 150 

VIII. The Net, - - - - - - - 164 

IX. The Unforgiving Servant, - - - 180 

X. The Laborers in the Vineyard, - - - 190 

XL The Two Sons, - - - . - - 201 

XII. The Wicked Husbandmen, ... 214 

XIII. The Royal Marriage Feast, - - - 227 

(iii) 



IV CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Sermon XIV. The Royal Marriage Feast, - - - 245 

*« XV. *« ** <* << - - - 261 

»< XVI. The Ten Virgins, 282 

<< XVII. The Good Samaritan, - - . . 303 

** XVIII. The Rich Fool, 316 

<< XIX. The Barren Fig Tree, ... - 328 

** XX. The Great Supper, - • - - - 346 

" XXI. The Prodigal Son, - - - - 363 

" XXII. The Unjust Steward, - - - - 382 

"XXIII. The Rich Man and Lazarus, - - - 395 

<< XXIV. ** a a t( it ... 410 

'« XXV. The Pounds, 427 

«* XXVI. ** " 433 



EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



The following sefmons have been pi*epared for the press in ac* 
cordance with the desire of the family and friends of the author» 
All his manuscript sermons were placed in our hands, in order that 
We might select the number requisite to make up the proposed vol- 
ume. We were led to select the discourses on the Parables, mainly 
by what we knew of the Unfulfilled intentions of Dr, Davidson 
himself. A few years before his death he informed us that he in« 
tended to publish his discourses on the Parables, and that he was 
then preparing them for the press. Probably the failure of his 
health compelled him to abandon the undertaking. The MSS., 
however, contain hints for the guidance of a publisher or editor, 
showing that the author had thought of a posthumous publication. 
We have been cheered in the drudgery of editorial work, by the 
consideration that we Were but carrying out the wishes of a highly 
esteemed, but departed friend. 

Dr. Davidson re-wrote six sermons for the press, numbered 
in the following series as XIIL, XIV., XV., XX., XXIII. and 
XXI v., and though we re=copied them, they are here published 
just as he left them, excepting such corrections as an author would 
make in a final revision of his own manuscript, 

In preparing the other twenty sermons for publication, we have 
necessarily made some changes, and we deem it proper to state 
what these are. We have occasionally omitted single words, parts 
of sentences, and, though very seldom, whole sentences. We 
have occasionally exchanged words for others, and reconstructed 
sentences. Sometimes we have had to develop a figure which was 
merely noted in the MS. We have written out small portions of 
a fev/ of the sermons from the author\s notes. 

Yet the changes we have made do not affect the integrity, or pe* 
culiarities even, o( the language. We have copied page after page 

(V) 



vi editor's preface. 

from his MSS. without making any change whatever. We can 
assure the reader that these sermons as published are Dr. David- 
son's. The most of the language is his own, and if there is in all 
these sermons a single idea that is not expressed or noted in his 
MSS., we are not aware of it. Our desire and endeavor have been 
to make only such changes (so far as we ha,ve made any) as he 
would have made, had he been re- writing his own sermons for the 
press. 

There are very few statements in these sermons from which we 
dissent; but of course we do not approve of every idea presented 
in them. In a few instances we have indicated our dissent in 
marginal notes. We have inserted also in marginal notes a few 
explanations for the benefit of unlearned readers. The marginal 
notes that are without signature are the author's. 

The arrangement of these sermons in the order in which they 
appear is the work of the editor. The MSS. contain no hint of 
the author's wishes or judgment in regard to this matter. 

On some of the Parables, Friend at Midnight, Lost Sheep, Lost 
Piece of Money, and others, the author left no discourses ; at least 
none have been discovered among his MSS. The sermons on the 
Parable of the Pounds are little more than skeletons. The latter 
part of the sermon on the Parable of the Prodigal Son is also a 
skeleton. We could not write out these sermons in full without 
inserting much of our own composition. 

The sketch of Dr. Davidson's life, and the essay on his character 
as a preacher, pastor, and orator, were both written by men well 
acquainted with his habits, style, attainments and modes of thought ; 
the one having sat during many years under his ministry, and the 
other having been many years his co-presbyter and intimate friend. 

We would remind the reader that he need not expect to find 
these printed sermons by any means equal to the author's spoken 
ones. Not only the charm and power of the living speaker, but 
also the sudden flashes of thought, struck out in the excitement 
and heat of delivery, are wanting. 

The six sermons referred to above, as having been written out by 
the author himself for publication, may be regarded as being in 
thought, style and finish what he intended all his published ser- 
m.ons on the Parables should be, had his life and health been 
spared. 

EDITOR. 



Dr. Davidson AS a Preacher, Orator, 
AND Pastor^ 



With great pleasure I learn of the purpose to 
publish a volume of sermons of the late William 
Davidson, D.D. I wish to bear my humble testi- 
mony of him, as a preacher, orator, and pastor. 

In April, 1848, he was received as a member of 
the First Associate Reformed Presbytery of Ohio, 
From that time until his death, in July, 1875, we 
were co-presbyters, and inseparable friends. I 
ought then to know him ; but who could know Dr. 
Davidson in twenty-seven years, any more than a 
person can tell what figure or colors the next turn 
of the kaleidoscope will present ? Still I may give 
my impressions of him, and then quarrel with no 
one who may differ with me in opinion. 

As a preacher, he was thoroughly furnished for 
his work ; well read in the Scriptures, and able to 
quote, at pleasure, from any part of them. He 
had a large and varied library ; was a great reader, 
quick of perception and understanding, and had a 
very retentive memory; hence the resources from 
which he had to draw. His topics of discussion 

(7) 



g DR. DAVIDSON AS A PREACHER, 

were selected from all parts of the Word, doctrinal 
and practical, and his mode of discussion, argumen- 
tative or hortatory, as the subject might require ; 
rightly dividing the word of truth, and giving to all 
a portion in due season. 

All classes, learned and unlearned, listened to 
him with eager pleasure, for there was food for each 
one. He was well versed in all the ancient and 
modern phases of infidelity, and grappled them with 
the power of a giant. Perhaps he spent too much 
time and study, in the latter years of his ministry,, 
in preaching on the scientific objections to Chris- 
tianity. Many of his hearers would not understand, 
and could not be expected to do more than wonder 
and admire, though his congregation was above the 
average in intelligence. 

His power and success, as a preacher, lay in his 
great skill or ability in preaching Christ crucified 
for the sins of men ; there, at le st, I admired him 
far more than when he was making his most learned 
and labored efforts amid the plaudits of thousands. 
One so ardent in his feelings, and so quick in' 
thought, and so rapid in his utterance, could not 
but sometimes go to excess or extravagance ; and 
this was more perceptible in the Doctor as a preacher 
on great public occasions, than it was in the quiet 
of home. He would have been more or less than 
human, if he had not been flattered by the applause 
he received from the crowds following to hear him 
preach, when in some of our cities attending church 
courts. 

Imagine a minister rising to preach to a crowded 



4 

ORATOR, AND PASTOR. 





house, whom he knew came especially to hear him. 
Would he not think now I must do my best? And 
the Spirit would /^/ him. He might say extravagant 
things if he chose. The same man, under other 
circumstances, not tempted by the applause of men, ^ 
feeling only, I am an ambassador of Christ, and 
** Woe is me if I preach not the gospel, ^^ will have 
the presence and assistance of the Spirit to keep 
him from all excess. Dr. Davidson was most ad- 
mired and loved as a preacher when he had little or 
no preparation, and when his whole soul was filled 
with his subject, and every thought and word came 
bubbling up fresh and warm from a heart which 
could not exaggerate the love and grace and mercy 
of God, as exhibited in the gospel. While he wrote 
much, he was largely an extemporaneous speaker, 
and many of his best thoughts were never written, 
and will never be published. 

As an orator, what shall I say of him? Above 
the average height of men, straight as an arrow, 
hair black as the raven, an eye of the same color, 
with a range of expression from the fiercest glare 
of the tiger to a softness which the gazelle might 
have envied ; a voice of great compass and power, 
from the loudest thunder tones to the softest whis- 
per ; eye and voice ever changing with the subject, 
or the orator's feeling. 

There was a magic in his presence ; a magic in 
his eye; a magic in his voice; a magic in his every 
action, aye, even in his occasional uncouth gestures. 
As his nature varied in every mood, so his style of 
oratory varied. Sometimes, like a mighty, rushing, 



lO DR, DAVIDSON AS A PREACHER, 

rock-bound torrent, he would cause the hearer to 
stand, spellbound and breathless on the brink, as 
he listened to the rush of the current, bounding 
from angle to angle, and only breathe freely again 
when the torrent reached the placid lake. Again, 
he would be low, soft, gentle, 

" Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes." 

His imagination would sometimes outstrip his 
logic. His powers of pathos and invective w^ere 
alike unbounded. Often verbose, sometimes a per- 
fect plethora of adjectives and alliterations, as 
though he shook them off from the tips of his 
fingers, for you could hardly suppose even so facile 
a tongue as his could utter so many in one breath. 
He often dealt in hyperbole, and no wonder that he 
did, when we think of his ardor and impetuosity, 
his varied learning, which ranged over time and 
space, from creation's dawn to the farthest star that 
twinkles on the verge of space. Pardon me, gentle 
reader, it would drive the dullest man into hyper- 
bole when he thinks of Dr. Davidson as an orator, 
whose like we shall not soon see again. 

As a pastor, he was faithful in the discharge of 
his duty up to the time of his failure of health. 
Unselfish and impartial in his pastoral labors, the 
homes of the rich and the abodes of the poor were 
alike to him; aye, even the hovels of squalid misery- 
had light and cheer in them, from his presence and 
sympathetic words and prayers. 

His greatness was seen and felt in the halls of 
debate, or in the pulpit, where he held multitudes 



ORATOR, AND PASTOR. II 

entranced. But his goodness was best seen and 
most felt in his pastoral work. He had a kind, 
warm, loving heart, and was full of sympathy, and 
appeared best at the bedside of the sick or by the 
coffin of the dead. The rich admired him, but the 
poor loved him. His tall form was sometimes seen 
walking by the side of a poor widow, as she fol- 
lowed a husband's remains to the grave, comforting 
her with the story of a /osl Eden and a found Para- 
dise. 

We claim not for him perfection ; but that he 
tried to be faithful in visiting the sick, in instructing 
the ignorant, reproving the wayward. The com- 
forts he gave to others on a bed of death, he de- 
sired for himself in the evening of his life. Seeing 
him often in his last sickness, it was perceptible 
that he did not have all the joy of salvation that he 
desired ; but as the body grew weaker the spirit 
grew stronger, faith asserted its power; and while 
there was no extatic triumph, there was the calm, 
clear, assurance of faith and hope, which gave sad, 
sorrowing friends strength to watch those loving 
eyes darkening in death; believing that the freed 
spirit would soon dwell in that light which comes 
from the glory of God and the Lamb. 

Farewell, brother beloved — a sinner saved by 
grace. J. Y. Scouller. 



12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



BiOGf\APHicAL Sketch. 



William Davidson was born October 2, 1817, 
in Brooke County, West Virginia, and died in Ham- 
ilton, Ohio, July 21, 187s, in the 58th year of his 
age.* 

His early years were spent at the home of his 
parents, where he had the advantage of a thorough 
and conscientious family training, a school more 
effective in developing character and talents than all 
the Institutions that have been or can be reared by 
State liberality or private munificence. 

At the age of thirteen, or thereabouts, he was 
sent to a preparatory school, at Liberty, Pennsylva- 
nia, from which, at the age of fifteen, he was sent 
to Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, where he 
pursued his studies during the four succeeding 
years. Among his college associates were Hon. 
John A. Bingham, Rev. Elijah McCoy, Rev. Drs. 
Black, James Brown, Vincent, and others of name 
in the Church. 

He pursued his theological studies at home, under 
the direction of the Rev. J. O. Neal, of the Re- 
formed Dissenting Church, pastor at Short Creek, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



13 



West Virginia. His studies were confined to the 
Bible and a few of the best works, written simply 
to explain and illustrate its teachings. At this time 
he acquired, in good part, that wonderful store of 
biblical quotation that so enriched his preaching. 

He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Pres- 
bytery of the Reformed Dissenters in 1840, at a 
meeting held in the old *' Tent Church,'' near the 
place of his birth. His first field of labor was 
in Southwestern Ohio and Southeastern Indiana, 
preaching at widely scattered stations, and, in pass- 
ing to and fro, holding service in dwellings, school- 
houses, barns, and wherever, by the wayside and 
beside all waters, he could get saint or sinner to 
listen to the gospel oflfice. 

The denomination to which he belonged, and in 
which, from birth, Providence had cast his lot, never 
numbered more than four ministers, and while its 
membership was limited to this proportion, they 
were scattered far and wide. It was little in his 
catholic nature to join with the leaders of that 
secession in making a cause of schism out of an 
impracticable abstraction ; but it was in striking 
consistency with his whole life, to remain and work 
where Providence had clearly placed him until Prov- 
idence as clearly called him away. 

On the 28th of June, 1842, he was married, in 
Greene County, Ohio, to Mrs. Elizabeth Reynolds, 
who survives him. He then took up his residence 
in the border of Indiana, near the State line, west 
of Oxford, Ohio. He preached to congregations 
at Vienna, Indiana, at College Corner, and at Car- 



14 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 



thage and Piqua, Ohio. The congregation at Car- 
thage, Ohio, was the remnant of the Mill Creek 
congregation of the Associate Reformed Church, 
over which the Rev. Robert Warwick had been 
made pastor, in the closing years of the last cen- 
tury, and which he had disrupted and scattered, in 
his strenuous efforts to define the exact line between 
civil and ecclesiastical authority, and to determine 
just how far a Christian man may properly go in 
accepting the benefits of Government and in giving 
it support. 

Two of these places of preaching were, each, 
about thirty miles from his residence, and the other 
could not be reached in less than fifty miles. His 
journeys were made on horseback, and his custom 
was to preach at places by the way in going and 
coming. Thus his sermons were multiplied, and 
multitudes occasionally heard the gospel from him, 
labors of which there is no record save in the book 
of God's remembrance. 

Finding that his official work as a minister was 
hindered by his inability to administer the sacra- 
ments of the Church, in May, 1843, he journeyed 
to West Virginia, to receive ordination at the hands 
of the Presbytery. He continued his labors as 
pastor of the churches mentioned above until the 
close of the year 1847. It may be said that this 
portion of his ministry was most strikingly charac- 
teristic and noble. His long journeys to fill his 
appointments, his constant labors, generally aver- 
aging one sermon daily, the fiery eloquence and 
apostolic fervor with which he proclaimed both the 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 



IS 



law and the gospel, his unselfish devotion to his 
Master's work, all gave proof of his consuming zeal 
and his lofty qualities. Even at this period his 
health 'was uncertain, and his work was done under 
the constant monition, ^'I'he time is short." All 
through this region there are still those who love to 
tell of his work and suffering during those years, of 
his preaching when he was unable to stand up dur- 
ing the service — even of his preaching while lying 
on a bed. They dwell with admiration upon his 
impetuous and moving eloquence, the courage and 
fidelity with which he denounced sin and portrayed 
the terrors of the law, and upon the impassioned, 
tearful earnestness with which he besought all to 
accept eternal life. 

Early in the year 1848 he was called to become 
pastor of the Associate Reformed Church of Ham- 
ilton, and in March of that year he moved his 
family to that place. At this period he left the 
Reformed Dissenting Presbytery and united with 
the First Presbytery of Ohio, in the Associate Re- 
formed Church. In this charge he succeeded the 
revered and loved Dr. McDill, who had labored in 
the same field since the year 18 16. In personal 
appearance and in manner these two men were 
widely different, but in ability, fidelity and earnest- 
ness they were counterparts. Between them there 
was always the best feeling of affection and esteem, 
that suggested the venerable Paul and beloved Tim- 
othy. It was the beginning of a kingly line of 
preachers. 

From this date his labors were mainly confined to 



1 6 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 

Hamilton and its vicinity. His field was, in its 
area, less extended, but required no less labor. He 
preached as often and as earnestly, visited the sick 
with the same tenderness, and continued to exhibit 
the same fervid zeal and intrepid courage. His long 
pastorate, much longer than any other in Hamilton, 
together with the high esteem in which he was held 
by the community at large, made him the friend and 
pastor of most of those who belonged to no church. 
They sent for him in their sickness and troubles, 
and called upon him to preach at the funerals of 
their dead. His labors were thus greatly multiplied, 
but he accepted every invitation, regarding it as an 
open door for the gospel. Eternity alone will reveal 
the results of this sowing beside all waters. But 
we can not doubt that the bread thus cast upon the 
waters has returned to him in the final and eternal 
welcome. 

His ill-health, too, continued. He seemed never 
to know the blessing of undisturbed, painless health. 
Twenty-one years ago, at one time for three months, 
he did not enter his pulpit. We considered his 
work was done, and at several subsequent times we 
thought that the royal summons had come. As 
a rule, whenever he could walk he could preach, 
and whenever he preached it was with all his earn- 
estness and power. A few years ago, toward the 
close of his ministry, on account of ill-health, he 
was absent from us for several months. When he 
returned we thought him but little improved. But 
early in the following winter an unusual religious 
interest became apparent in his congregation and in 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 



17 



the community, and for three months he conducted 
services every evening in the church, besides preach- 
ing twice each Sabbath ! During these services there 
was rarely a meeting in which his ringing, pleading 
tones were not heard. At their close more than a 
hundred and forty persons made a profession of 
their faith in Christ and united with his church. 

His catholicity led him to familiar and friendly 
relations with all Christians. More and more he 
carae to magnify the essentials of evangelical relig- 
ion — the atonement, justification by faith, the divin- 
ity and headship of Christ, repentance, regeneration 
and a new life — and relatively to disregard the 
watchwords of denominations, the shibboleths of 
parties. He was an early and zealous advocate 
of the union of the Associate and Associate Re- 
formed Churches, and he prayed and urged that a 
union more comprehensive and more glorious might 
be brought about. He did not change or give up 
any part of his own well-matured belief; but he 
thought it quite practical and worthy of effort, that 
those who are children of the same Father, re- 
deemed by the same Savior, guided by the same 
Spirit of truth, and heirs of the same immortality, 
should manifest their unity and honor their Master 
by a spiritual, and, finally, a corporate union. For 
this reason he was sometimes suspected of want of 
love for his own denomination and zeal for her dis- 
tinctive principles. In this he was misjudged. He 
had great love and zeal for his own apartments, but 
also a zeal for the whole house of the Lord. 

From the date of his coming to Hamilton until 

2 



1 8 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 

1873, a period of twenty-five years, his life flowed 
on, without other incidents than those which be- 
long to a zealous, earnest pastor and an eloquent 
preacher of the gospel. At one time he took an 
active part in the temperance movement, and was 
a most effective and popular lecturer in that field. 
He w^as an early opponent of slavery, and with rare 
foresight measured its pretensions and the dangers 
with which it menaced the Republic. When the 
rebellion openly proclaimed its purpose, his patriot- 
ism, his regard for social order, his love for God 
and man, were roused and his whole nature enlisted. 
Said he: **If it were possible I ^v^ould volunteer and 
go to the field, and I would want a position where 
I might hope to hurt an enemy.'* 

In the midst of the apathy that preceded the 
clash of arms, he said : *' There will be war; it can 
not be avoided.'' And when the conflict opened, 
and many were saying the contest will be short and 
trifling, he said: ^'The war will be long and deso- 
lating, and can not end except with the utter 
exhaustion of one party." He freely said, also, 
that if it took twenty years and cost a million of 
lives the stake was worth the cost. 

It was not his custom to bring such themes into 
his pulpit. His rule was to preach the gospel with- 
out much regard to current events in the State. 
But when he discussed the duty of practicing tem- 
perance, or of opposing slavery, or of maintaining 
the Government, all of which he sometimes did, 
there was a boldness, a thoroughness and intrepid- 
ity, both in manner and treatment, that bore down 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



19 



opposition and secured toleration, if not assent. In 
1856 or 1857, after veliemently denouncing slavery 
for its iniquity, and its evil effects upon all classes, 
from the slave to the statesman — a denunciation 
rapid, comprehensive and stormy — he paused a 
moment, and then, with the air of resenting an 
impertinence, said: ** Don't tell me that I am 
preaching politics. I know as well as you what 
becomes this sacred desk. I am set to denounce 
all sin, and shall I seal my lips in presence of this 
gigantic sin?'* There was no carping at that ser- 
mon. 

As a preacher, he was striking, and in many 
respects alone in his class and in his excellence. 
His form was towering and commanding ; his com- 
plexion was dark ; his face was strongly marked in 
every feature ; even among strangers his appearance 
compelled instant and general attention. His eye, 
black and piercing, looked out from under beetling 
brows, radiant with the light of kindliness, or flash- 
ing responses to the inward thought. In speaking 
it was most expressive and powerful. It kept up a 
rapid and vigorous interpretation of the discourse, 
now full of tenderness, now welling up with unbid- 
den tears, and anon gleaming with indignation. His 
voice was magical in its range and compass and 
power. It was clear and penetrating, with ease 
filling the largest auditorium, and in the open air 
reaching to the utmost limit of the largest assem- 
blages. It had every tone, from the gentle zephyr 
to the roaring tempest. In the heat and fervor of 
his speech his utterance was a rushing torrent. But 



20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

his articulation was never confused; his words never 
fell by the way. He was earnest and impassioned 
almost to a fault. Sometimes persons, incapable of 
the continued tension, would from very weakness 
fail to keep up with the impetuous, unflagging 
stream of thought and speech. 

His elocution in the pulpit was remarkably effec- 
tive. With no appearance or hint of study, or 
artificiality, there was an evident and intelligent 
apprehension of every shade of meaning, and a 
ready adaptation of tone, volume and emphasis, 
that carried the meaning full to the hearer. His 
reading of the Psalms and lessons of Scripture was 
often a better interpretation than the expounding 
of other men. Under its revealing power, obscure 
passages became luminous and transparent, illustra- 
tion and argument became evident and instinct with 
spirit and vigor, and that which to the common 
mind seemed ordinary, or trite, rose to majestic 
proportions and took on the brilliancy of a new 
revelation. Texts of Scripture read or quoted by 
him were often indelibly stamped upon the mem- 
ory, as the light fixes the fleeting shadow in per- 
petual likeness upon the passive plate. Who can 
ever forget, if once he heard, his reading of the 
simple line, 

*<Thou hast an arm that's full of power?'* 

his reverent expression of countenance and tone of 
voice, the deliberate utterance giving dignity and 
force, the lingering with increasing volume upon 
the word ''full," and the explosive energy upon the 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 21 

word ''power?" Even the rugged rhymes, and 
halting measures and desperate inversions, that 
occasionally occurred in the old psalm-book, had 
no offense for the most fastidious ear, when his 
appreciative and expressive reading brought out 
the strength and meaning. His reading of the 
lines, beginning 

**PIis name forever shall endure," 

and those other lines, beginning 

** Walk about Zion," 

had the joyous and confident ring of conscious 
security and relentless defiance. In reading a 
chapter from Romans, or Hebrews, his just em- 
phasis and inflection and agreeable modulation had 
the effect of a commentary, without loss of time 
and without weariness. In biblical quotation, in 
which his preaching was peculiarly rich, this effec- 
tive elocution was equally noticeable. In his most 
eloquent passages-:-passages marked by rich im- 
agery and clothed in a gorgeous drapery of lan- 
guage — an appropriate Scripture quotation was 
generally the climax both of thought and manner. 
All his own eloquence was but straining the bow 
and feathering the arrow. All who listened to his 
preaching can recall instances of the thrilling effect 
produced as he lanched his shafts pointed and 
barbed with inspired words. 

We remember him standing at the head of the 
cornmunion table, turning away and addressing a 
few fervid sentences to the non-communicants — 
then, his tall form leaning forward and his strained 



22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

eyes glowing upon his hearers, exclaiming ''The 
King of Israel sits at this table.'* He is asking, 
mayhap in anger, '* Why cometh not the son of Jesse 
to the feast, neither yesterday nor to-day?'' 

We remember listening to him portray in vivid 
colors the results of giving up life to mere earthly 
aims and enjoyments, closing the lofty strain Avith : 
*'Soon you will start back in horror, exclaiming, 
*Alas! my Master, ''there is death in the pot/' "* 
The quotation, so homely and trite, was at once irra- 
diated with a fearful interpretation. The attitude, 
and tone and countenance of horror, the upraised 
hands and streaming eyes, gave token of a reality 
of feeling and sympathy unattainable by the most 
consummate acting. The temptation is great to 
linger among these treasures of memory, but time 
and space forbid. 

His knowledge of church history and of the liter- 
ature of theology and theological controversy was 
extensive and varied. He had read widely and had 
a well-trained and retentive memory. His library 
was unusually large and valuable. He kept pace 
with the varying forms of infidelity and skepticism. 
Darwin and Spencer, and Huxley and Strauss, were 
read, and at all times he seemed to know of the 
place and plans of the enemy. But his glory and 
power were in his knowledge of the Scriptures, and 
his deep insight into their meaning. Before his 
thirtieth year he had committed to memory the 
entire New Testament, and a great portion of the 
Old. 

He had also that profound spiritual insight, that 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 23 

new sense — that can only come of the Spirit of 
truth, who guides into all truth. Learning and 
study can not attain unto it. His mental processes 
were strikingly rapid. His conversations, and 
speaking wholly extempore, were often as clear, 
forcible, and as well expressed as if they had been 
the result of the most elaborate preparation. He 
was full and ready both in conversation and in 
preaching. It was rare, indeed, that any one in- 
quired of him concerning any matter of religious 
truth or biblical interpretation that he was not ready 
with an answer, full, mature, and confirmed by fact 
and argument. In the pulpit, biblical phraseology, 
biblical illustration, and biblical quotation flowed in 
exhaustless profusion. This wealth of Scripture 
was, perhaps, the most striking feature of his 
preaching. 

He was courageous both to believe and to speak, 
and his preaching was evangelical through and 
through. He never flinched from accepting any 
revealed truth, and never hesitated to proclaim it 
in all its fullness. It is doing no injustice to his 
memory to say that he had little patience or respect 
for those ministers who profess to accept but are 
too cowardly to proclaim the entire revelation of 
God; who preach **another gospel*' by omitting 
the claims of the Divine Sovereignty; who invite 
to a salvation without an atonement ; and who, by 
their silence as to the law, preach redemption 
through a divine love that overthrows divine law 
and justice. He preached no such false, weakling 
gospel. His whole bearing was that of an imperial 



24 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



ambassador. It said more plainly than words, ''I 
have a message from God unto thee/' 

It may be asked how one, so gifted with knowl- 
edge and eloquence, did not possess a wider fame 
and leave monuments more enduring than the mem- 
ories of his comparatively limited circle of hearers. 
But it should be remembered that fame is not the 
lot of even the best preachers, save in very rare 
instances, and these exceptions in nearly every case 
owe their posthumous fame to authorship and not 
to preaching. The great preacher of Cromarty, 
whom Hugh Miller so affectionately and so elo- 
quently placed prominent among his schoolmasters, 
would not have been known beyond his own parish, 
and would have been forgotten even there in a sin- 
gle generation, but for his great and appreciative 
parishioner. And yet Hugh Miller, an almost 
incomparable judge in such matters, calls him, 
*' except Chalmers, sublimest of Scottish preach- 
ers." And this was written by a man familiar with 
MacLeod, McCrie, Duff, Arnot, and with the fame 
and the writings of all the others who had made the 
Scottish pulpit illustrious, and who, at the time of 
writing, was listening to the ministrations of Dr. 
Guthrie ! 

Dr. Davidson was fond of that kind of popularity, 
not proud but peaceable, which is gained at the 
fireside and by the sick bed, which comes from" 
healed or comforted hearts ; but he had no fondness 
for that other popularity, which one of its most 
most conspicuous martyrs has so forcibly described 
as ^'a popularity of stare and pressure and animal 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



25 



heat, and a whole tribe of other annoyances which 
it brings around the person of its unfortunate vic- 
tim ; a popularity that rifles home of its sweets, and, 
by elevating a man above his fellows, places him in 
a region of desolation, where the intimacies of hu- 
man fellowship are unfelt, and where he stands a 
conspicuous mark for the shafts of malice and envy 
and detraction, a popularity which, with its head 
among storms and feet on the treacherous quick- 
sands, has nothing to lull the agonies of its tottering 
existence but the hosannas of a driveling genera- 
tion." Hence, while he had qualities that would 
have rendered it easy for him to gain a brilliant 
popularity, he felt no prompting to such a course. 
His attachment to the people of his own congrega- 
tion was so strong that he scarce ever felt a desire 
to look away from them. ''Thine own friend and 
thy father's friend forsake not," was to him not only 
a maxim of inspired wisdom, but it ran strong in 
the current of his own nature. Like the Shunammite 
woman, who respectfully declined being presented 
to the king, he ''dwelt among his own people." 

His continued and painful ill-health rendered it 
almost impossible for him to pursue that course of 
severe and continuous study and investigation, to 
bestow that minute and painstaking finish that are 
necessary to successful authorship. Especially was 
this true, when his pastoral and pulpit labors are 
taken into account. Suprerne above every other 
aim and desire he set the preaching of the gospel. 

As time wore on, and it was sure that the short 
time was growing shorter, his preaching, both in 



26 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCIL 

its tone and subject-matter, gradually underwent a 
change. The range of subjects seemed to narrow 
down to the cross of Christ and its immediate 
belongings, and there was an increase of impor- 
tunate earnestness and pleading tenderness in all 
he said. There were, during this later period, 
fewer excursions into regions collateral to the gos- 
pel, and less reference to the remoter duties of the 
Christian life, while his gorgeous imagination was 
more restrained and chastened. His whole effort 
seemed to be to warn against the sin of unbelief, 
and to hold up Christ as the only and all-sufficient 
Savior. It seemed as if time pressed him so 
urgently that there was no room for any theme but 
Christ. He spoke literally as a dying man to dying 
men. His preaching at this time was a warning 
cry, a pleading entreaty, an affectionate and earnest 
call to the unconverted, an admonition to his people 
to draw nearer to the Savior. 

His desire was that he might die in harness. But 
the Master overruled his wish. Nevertheless, he 
wore the full armor to the last, and did earnest bat- 
tle as long as his strength lasted. 

On the 14th of February, 1873, he was attacked 
with paralysis. From his he slowly recovered, and 
even preached a few sermons ; but his bodily infirm- 
ities were oppressing him. His speech was slow, 
and his manner greatly changed. He gave up the 
active work of the ministry w^itli evident pain and 
reluctance. To live and not to preach was to him 
a sore trial. A few weeks before his death, he said: 
*'My w^ork for the Master is done, but the Master 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 2/ 

does not take me, no doubt because he has a work 
to do on me.^^ 

In February, 1874, he demitted his charge, and, 
with the consent of the congregation, the pastoral 
relation was dissolved by Presbytery in the follow- 
ing April. During the following year, with slowly 
declining strength and continually brightening pros- 
pects, he lingered among his family and friends, 
waiting for the final call, and exemplifying the gos- 
pel he had preached. 

In June, 1875, he entered the valley and shadow 
of death, and from that time until his death, July 
2 1st, he lived a painful, wearisome, sleepless, rest- 
less, struggling life. But his patience and kindness 
never forsook him. He made no complaint, nor 
even taxed the forbearance of those around him. 
He waited the full measure of his time, not even 
expressing a wish to hasten the messenger that 
seemed to come so slowly, until, with the words 
** Almost home'' upon his lips, he fell asleep. 

D. W. McClung. 



28 THE PARABLE 



SERMON I. 



The Parable of the Sower. 

MATTHEW XIII. 3-9, 1 8-23. 



A PARABLE Is a serious narration, within the limits 
of probability, of a course of action, pointing to 
some moral or spiritual truth. It differs from fable; 
for fable rejects the probable and teaches through 
fancy (making beasts, birds and inanimate things 
speak), and inculcates maxims merely of worldly 
prudence ; whereas the parable adheres to proba- 
bility, and teaches through the imagination, intro- 
ducing only things which are realities or may be so. 
The parable differs also from the myth ; for in the 
myth, the fictitious is set forth as truth and is re- 
ceived as such by the simple, the vehicle and the 
thing conveyed being distinguished from each other 
only by reflective minds; whereas in the former they 
are readily distinguished, so that the simplest never 
lose sight of the spiritual truth which the parable 
contains. The parable differs from the allegory in 
this, that the allegory is self-interpreting, the imag- 
inary persons, whom it introduces, declaring all the 
while who they are. 



OF THE SOWER. 



2g 



All material and earthly things are no doubt the 
analogues of the spiritual, invisible and eternal, if 
we only knew hr>w to interpret them aright. The 
resemblances are often pointed out in the parables 
of our Savior. It is thus that to the spiritual and 
enlightened mind communion with the earth and 
its business constantly suggests things spiritual 
and divine. Thus husband and wife suggest Christ 
and the Church ; parent and child, Christ and the 
believer; physician and disease, Christ and sin; 
sun, spiritual illumination; slavery, bondage to sin; 
deliverance from slavery, sanctification and redemp- 
tion. 

As to the particular parable under discussion, the 
place and circumstances of its delivery are worthy 
of attention. Coming from his home in Caper- 
naum, our Savior was surrounded by thronging 
multitudes. For convenience he went from the 
shore to the ship, and taught the people from 
thence. We have a parable, in the position itself, 
of the Preacher and the hearers ; he and his dis- 
ciples on the ship, the hearers on the shore at their 
ease. How often is it that Christ and his people, 
the Church of the living God, are, as it were, an ark 
on a storm-tossed sea, toiling with waves and tem- 
pests, while the careless multitude are wholly at 
their ease. But let no disciple murmur or repine, 
and let not sinners take complacency. Woe unto 
them that are at ease — to the careless daughters — 
to the rich who have heaped together treasures 
against their own souls, who are receiving their con- 
solation, and are in danger of speedy and everlast- 



30 



THE PARABLE 



ing poverty. *' Blessed are the poor in spirit: for 
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they 
that mourn : for they shall be comforted. Blessed 
are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute 
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you 
falsely, for my sake."^ 

But consider the place and its surroundings. As 
Jesus sat in the ship and faced the multitude on the 
shore, a most beautiful and lovely landscape lay 
before him. In full view lay the beautiful low- 
lands, industriously and tastefully cultivated, clothed 
in green and bloom, and presenting all the pleasing 
sights and sounds of rural sce'nery — nibbling flocks 
and happy homes, playing boys and girls, and old 
men leaning on their staves for very age, humming 
bees and singing birds, and busy laborers content 
and cheery at their toils. Beyond, beautifully slop- 
ing upward and away, stretched the blue and wavy 
hills, swelling aloft. Clothed and crowned with the 
olive, the date, the citron and the vine, and waving 
and rustling with the growing corn, they seemed as 
if clothed with a garment of glory from the hand 
of God. Away and away to the north and west, the 
lofty Lebanon, with cedary sides and snow-crowned 
summit, seemed like a sleeping sentinel keeping 
watch and ward over the holy city. Beneath and 
around lay the clear, cool wavelets of the pellucid 
lake, breaking, on the clear, white sands just pressed 
by Jesus' feet, with a low impassioned voice, as 
if they gave an answering sigh of love to the woo- 
ing zephyrs, that gently pressed the bosom of the 

* Matthew v. 3, 4, 11. 



OF THE SOWER. 



31 



waters. While down to the very sands of the shui- 
ing shore, and away off to the south, and adown 
the gleaming waters of the Jordan, there grew, now 
in trimmed and now in tangled luxuriance, flower- 
ing and aromatic shrubs, perfuming the air and 
delighting the eye. Altogether, the landscape was 
fit to be the embodiment of one of those gorgeous 
conceptions of beauty and bounty, which had welled 
up in the mind of the Uncreated, but All-creating, 
from of old, from everlasting. 

In the midst of such a scene as this, and all 
inspired by it, with the perishing, immortal multi- 
tudes of hearers before him on the shore, his heart 
all aglow with sympathy and compassion, and know^- 
ing that many would hear to no profit, but with the 
gospel sounding in their ears would go down to 
darkness and perish forever, it was that the Savior 
gave them and all hearers to the end of time, 
the warning contained in this beautiful parable 
explained by himself Lifting up his eyes from 
the ship to the shore and beyond the multitude 
which thronged it, he saw, it may be, a sower going 
forth and sowing his seed in those cultivated lands, 
which were without fences, and through which ran 
one of the most frequented highways in Palestine. 
And from this familiar occurrence, he drew an illus- 
tration of divine things, calculated to impress the 
minds of his auditors with the height of their privi- 
lege and the depth of their responsibility in hearing 
the gospel. 

The scope of this parable is to inculcate the 
needed lesson specified in Luke viii. 18: ''Take 



32 



THE PARABLE 



heed therefore how ye hear/' Its design is to teach 
that hearing the gospel is a most solemn thing and 
connected with most momentous consequences. 

1. The sower represents Christ and his apostles 
and successors. V\[ e sdij szfccessors; for ''He gave 
some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, 
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;''* 
and charged these to commit their trust to others. 
''The same commit thou to faithful men, who 
shall be able to teach others also.^'f Jesus is 
a light, a sun, prophet, teacher and guide, and he 
exercises his office now by the Spirit, through the 
word and by those whom he has called to labor 
therein. 

2. The seed represents the inspired word of God. 
"The sower soweth the word . . . The seed is the 
word of God. ''J In both sacred and secular litera- 
ture, doctrines taught to men are likened to seed. 
In this parable seed represents, in the first place, 
revealed truth in general, the whole word of God, 
the entire contents of the Holy Scriptures. (James 
i. i8. I Peter i. 23. Psalm cxxvi. 5, 6. Psalm 
Ixxii. 16.) But ill the second place, the seed more 
particularly and especially is "the word of the king- 
dom.'' (Matthew xiii. 19.) This word of the king- 
dom is mainly concerning redemption by Jesus 
Christ. This is the great central thought in divine 
revelation, and the one around which all the rest 
revolve. God, his character, providence and rela- 
tion to us— man, made in the image of God, immor- 

'••' Ephesians iv. 1 1, t 2 Timothy ii. 2. 
% Mark iv. 14. Luke viii. 11. 



OF THE SO WER. 



33 



tal, fallen, ruined and helpless — redeemed, under a 
dispensation of grace, hastening to death, judgment 
and a state of eternal rewards and retributions — 
these are the great leading truths, of which Ghrist 
is the central truth, Christ incarnate, substituted, 
atoning^ interceding, reigning, effusing his Spirit, 
calling and saving men. 

This ''word'' in general, and this ''gospel of the 
kingdom " especially, was the theme of the Great 
Teacher, and is the theme of all successors worthy 
of the name. Let us ever remember that Christ is 
both the sower and the seed sown. Just as he is 
the teacher and the truth, the physician and the 
medicine, the priest and the sacrifice, the guide and 
the way, so he is the sower and the seed. Again : 
let whoever preaches and whoever hears these truths 
of the kingdom, remember that they are Christ's 
truths. That man is accursed and shall be accursed 
and burdened with all the blood of lost souls, who 
preaches his own doctrine instead of Christ's doc- 
trine, his own gospel instead of Christ's gospel ; or, 
who through fear of man, or from any other un- 
worthy motive, fails to preach the pure truth or the 
whole truth. You ask too much of us when you 
ask the pulpit to court popularity by keeping back 
part of the truth. You ask for yourselves a stone. 
What do I say ? You ask for yourselves deadly 
poison instead of bread ; and you ask us to commit 
perjury against our own souls and treason against 
God, to incur the blood of the souls of our hearers, 
the wrath of God and eternal despair, merely that 
men's ears and hearts may not be wounded by the 



34 THE PARABLE 

truth. You ask too much when you require that 
we should keep back, trim or temper down painful 
truths, and dwell on those that are pleasant and 
entertaining, in order that your pulpit may be pop- 
ular, and your audience large and pleased, though 
no souls should be converted, and none built up in 
holiness. The seed to be sown is Christ's seed, 
and we sow any other at our peril and at the peril 
of all who hear us. Let that man be accursed who 
will not sow all of that seed or mixes with it the 
tares of error; and let that people be thrice accursed 
who would tempt the sower so to do, saying: 
** Speak smooth things, prophesy deceits.'' 

3. The soil in which the seed is sown is the 
human heart. (Matthew xiii. 19. Mark iv. 15. 
Luke viii. 12.) By the heart is meant the soul, 
spirit, mind, conscience, affections. Truth is sown 
boadcast, like seed, upon the hearts of men, but in 
every case it depends upon the heart itself whether 
it will be fruitful. It is in its own nature fruitful, 
but to take effect it must fall on suitable soil. 

By a masterly analysis and generalization hearers 
are divided into four classes. There were four 
classes before our Savior at the time he delivered 
this parable, and there are the same classes always 
in all lands wherever the word is sown. Probably - 
there are these classes here to-day. 

Moreover, this description will often answer to the 
different and successive stages in the history of the 
same hearer at different periods in his life. There 
are the wayside, the rocky-ground, the thorny- 
ground and the good-ground hearers. Hearer, you 



OF THE SOWER. 35 

belong to one of these classes. To which one? 
Listen with attention and application, and you shall 
know^ through God's grace. And if you belong to 
any but the fourth class, then seriously consider, 
repent, receive and obey the gospel, as you would 
be delivered from death, and made holy now, and 
holy and happy forever. 

I. The7^e are the wayside hearers. As the Savior 
looked upon that beautiful, busy agricultural scene, 
which lay before him; upon those busy laborers 
and green fields, with the highway winding through, 
and upon the sower casting abroad his seed, some 
of which doubtless fell by the wayside, and, remain- 
ing uncovered, was devoured by the fowls of heaven, 
and brought forth no fruit, he saw therein an em- 
blem of what would happen that day to many of 
his hearers and of what has often happened within 
these walls, and will probably occur again to-day. 
As the ground of the highway was trodden down so 
that it could receive the seed ; so the hearts of many 
hearers are so hard and insensible that divine truth 
effects no lodgment, and consequently makes no 
impression. The heart has been so passed over and 
trodden down so hard by the constant passing of 
sins and vanities, that it has become indifferent to 
spiritual things. An unconverted heart is Satan's 
field and highway. In it he has constant ingress 
egress, regress and progress. The vanities and pas- 
sions and lusts of earth make it insensible to the 
things which are unseen and eternal. 

This class are utterly dead to God and Christ and 
all divine truth. They do not realize God's being 



36 THE PARABLE 

and character, and their relations to him. They do 
not realize their own character or condition or duty 
or destiny. They never seriously consider* that 
they have souls destined to exist forever, or that 
God is their chief and supreme good. They do not 
realize that they are moral agents, under the govern- 
ment of God, and that they must give an account 
to him at last; that God hath appointed a day in 
which he will judge the world; that he will bring 
every work into judgment, with every secret thing, 
whether it be good or whether it be evil, and that 
he will reward every man according to his works. 
They do not realize that they are fallen, guilty, 
condemned, ruined and helpless, and that they have 
need of the atonement and grace of Christ. Nor 
amid the whirl and roar of pleasure and business 
and revelry, do they ever ask themselves, *'What 
shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole 
world, and lose his own soul?'* 

In a word, the wayside hearers are those who are 
almost entirely thoughtless and indifferent to relig- 
ion, and entirely absorbed in worldly and carnal 
pursuits. At home they do not read the Bible, nor 
evangelical books, with an earnest, candid, truth- 
loving spirit, nor converse in regard to Christian 
truths and duties, nor teach them to their children. 
In company they never introduce conversation on 
practical and experimental godliness, and if this 
topic is introduced by another they are silent. In 
secret they do not pray, or their prayer is merely 
from the force of an early custom, instituted under 
the pupilage of a pious home, and they neither 



OF THE SOWER. 



37 



deeply ponder the meaning of their parrot-prayers, 
nor desire or expect an answer. If they come to 
church at all, it is with a mind spiritually empty and 
wholly filled with worldly thoughts, so that it is to 
divine truth trodden hard like the wayside. 

You have come to church to-day; but you have 
come from custom or to please friends, or to see 
and be seen, or to spend an idle hour pleasantly, or 
from curiosity, or from the expectation of an intel- 
lectual entertainment, a feast of reason and flow of 
soul — and not because you hunger after spiritual 
food, not because above all things you desire salva- 
tion. You are not praying, ''Send out thy Hght 
and thy truth, and let them be guides to me, and 
bring me to thy holy hill." If you are anxious, it 
is not about your soul. If you are sad, it is not 
for sin. If you are in terror and anguish, it is not 
concerning the wrath of God. If you listen, it is 
not because you love the truth, or desire to be 
taught and made wise unto salvation. If you enjoy 
the sermon, and singing and other services, it is not 
because you have communion with God in them. 

So far as it concerns the great truths of the gos- 
pel, your mind is listless and indifferent. Your 
interest in the sermon altogether springs from the 
eloquence of the speaker, and not from any deep- 
felt interest in the things spoken. These are to you 
stale, flat and unprofitable. You do not understand 
them, nor realize them, nor lay them to heart. 

But most of you do not hear at all. Your minds 
are filled and occupied with other things than the 
gospel. When you came, all your care w^as to pre- 



38 'J'llJ^ PARABLE 

pare your bodies so as to make, at least, a neat 
and respectable appearance ; but you gave no 
closet-care in preparing your hearts to come and 
appear before God. You clothed your bodies, 
but you did not wash in the blood of Christ, 
nor array yourselves in the robe of his righteous- 
ness* Now that you are here, however clearly 
divine truth may be presented, your heart remains 
unaffected. Vanity, pride, business, pleasure, lust, 
covetousness, ambition, concupiscence, fill the heart 
and exclude the word. These are the eyil birds by 
which ^nhe Wicked One,"* ^^the Satan "f (the 
adversary), ''the Devil, "J catches the word away 
from your heart, so that it never germinated at all. 
Your attention is never seriously arrested. Your 
minds are never seriously ''convinced of sin, of 
righteousness, and of judgment." You live only 
for this life, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, 
strangers from the covenants of promise, having no 
hope, and without God in the world. 

All this IS brought about through the malign 
agency of "the Wicked One." You think you are 
wise and manly, that you are lord of your own 
thoughts, independent and free. Alas ! you are in 
the leading strings of Satan, "who takes you cap- 
tive at his will." He puts these things into your 
heart and turns you away from the things that 
belong to your peace. Lamentable spectacle! In 
the midst of such full, complete and divine light, to 
remain in darkness ! In the presence of so much 
danger, and with so great opportunities to secure 

*'' Mattliew K:iii. 19. t Mark iv. 1$. t Luke viii. 12. 



OF THE SOWER. 



39 



the great salvation, that you should remain so 
utterly insensible of both the one and the other ! 
This word of the kingdom is divinely pure, truth 
without any intermixture of error, and yet you fol- 
low the lie. It is firm and certain- — every word 
whether of promise or of penalty shall endure for- 
ever — all shall be fulfilled to the very last mite, and 
yet you live as if it were a dream, an old wives' 
fable. It is a firm ground of hope at all times, and 
yet you build upon the baseless fabric of a vision. 
It is light in darkness, strength in weakness, com- 
fort in affliction, food to the hungry, life to the 
dying ; and yet you turn away to things in which 
is no profit. And all this through the machinations 
of Satan. Alas ! Alas ! And yet you will not be 
warned. If you could with bodily eyes see Satan 
blinding, binding, and leading away your friends 
and neighbors, as willing captives, into darkness, 
the spectacle would terrify you. It would so fasten 
itself upon your imagination that you could not 
sleep. If you could see him thus dealing with you, 
though sleeping as in the sleep of death, you would 
be startled from your torpor and cry out to the God 
of mercy to save you. Well, whether you see it or 
not, it is so. God, in his word, assures you of it, 
and yet you are unconcerned. The awful warning 
falls on your ears, as seed on the hard-trodden high- 
way, making no impression. The devil, by the 
fowls of heaven, gathers all the truth away from 
your mind and heart ; and that heart, even within 
these sacred walls, and in this awful presence, con- 
tinues to be the highway for pride and vanity and 



^Q THE PARABLE 

folly, for covetousness, anger, ambition and every 
evil concupiscence. 

Here sounds the voice which ought to awaken, 
alarm and allure, yet you sleep on. You hear a 
voice full of light and truth concerning God and 
Christ and the Holy Spirit; concerning your high 
origin, immortal nature, deep fall, utter ruin and 
helplessness ; concerning a full, free, finished salva- 
tion, offered to each and every one of you; con- 
cerning the dark and stormy eternity that awaits 
the unbelieving and the ungodly, and the glorious 
immortality that is in store for them who repent, 
believe and obey the gospel; and concerning the 
need and efficacy of importunate and believing 
prayer, and the necessity of a public confession of 
Christ, and of an earnest and constant following of 
him in a consistent and steadfast life; and yet all 
this is to you, as Lot's warnings to his sons-in-law. 
You hear it as if it were a dream. You are like the 
deaf adder that stoppeth her ear, that she may not 
hear the voice of the charmer, though he were most 
cunning and could charm most wisely. ''Hear, O 
heavens, and give ear, O earth : for the Lord hath 
spoken ; I have nourished and brought up children, 
and they have rebelled against me. The ox know- 
eth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but 
Israel" — rmore brutish than the ox, more stupid 
than the ass — '' doth not know, my people doth not 
consider.'"^ 

And even if you do listen attentively and remem- 
ber, it is in the service of sin, and only when some 

*■ Isaiah i. 2, 3. 



OF THE SOWER, 



41 



particular point of doctrine or practice is discussed, 
which goes to bolster up wicked prejudices, or 
which you can pervert to your own ruin. For 
instance, if the minister proclaims a full and free 
justification without works, and through the gra- 
cious act of God, imputing the righteousness of 
Christ, received by faith, not only will the hearts 
of saints be all attention and their faces all abeam 
for the consolation ; but you may also find the Anti- 
nomian attentive and exultant, turning the grace 
of God into lasciviousness, and from the doctrine 
of gratuitous acceptance, through imputed right- 
eousness, inferring impunity in a life of ungodli- 
ness and sin. Because Christ's righteousness is 
sufficient and freely offered, he is content to go 
without sanctification of heart or life. Satisfied to 
have through Christ a right to heaven, he is utterly 
indifferent to being made meet for heaven. Thus 
he heareth the Av^ord, but understandeth it not; for 
Satan is busy at his heart. 

And now, when the discourse turns upon the 
depravity of man's nature and on his impotency to 
all good, except through the aids of grace, there 
is another hearer who bends forward in his seat and 
listens with open ears and eyes, and with every 
muscle tense and twitching. And as the argument 
sweeps on to its triumphant conclusion, showing 
man's utter inability to good, a glow of relief and 
satisfaction passes over his countenance. ''Now," 
says he, ''I may give up my compunctions on 
account of religious inactivity and a life of sin; 
for I can do nothing. I must just wait until God 



42 THE PARABLE 

comes and saves me/' He forgets all the while that 
God is found of those who seek him early, and that 
if he would receive, he must ask. 

Thus it is that on all these hearts the word makes 
no good impression, and that in many, many cases 
it becomes a savor of death unto death. 

In concluding this part of the discourse, let me 
briefly remind you — 

1. That this heedlesness is something very much 
under you own control. 

2. The hearing of the word increases your respon- 
sibility. It will make you better or worse. You 
give an awful insult to God in thus hurrying away 
from his word. You may never have another oppor- 
tunity of hearing it. 

3. Your soul is of unspeakable value. Made in 
the image of God, immortal, gifted with great 
capacities and powers, it is destined to an eternity 
of bliss in heaven, or an eternity of misery and 
despair in hell. God values it much. Saints and 
angels rejoice in its conversion. *'What shall it 
profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and 
lose his own soul? " 

4. How can you escape, if you persist in impeni- 
tence and disobedience ? Is there a God in heaven? 
Can you resist him or hide yourself from him ? 
''He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who 
hath hardened himself against him, and hath pros- 
pered?"'* 

5. Ignorance of the plan of salvation is willful. 
You could know and attend to the things which 

"'•' Job ix. 4. 



OF THE SOWER, 



43 



belong to your peace. You might seek and cry out 
for mercy, if you only would. 

6. Salvation is worth the utmost care and cost. 
It is of priceless value. What would Moses, or 
David, or Paul take now and sell it ? What would 
not the rich man in hell do now to obtain it? 

II. We next consider the rocky-groimd hearers. 
These are a better class of men than the wayside 
hearers. Their hearts are not so utterly overrun 
and trodden down by Satan and sin. They are not 
so utterly hardened and dead to religion. Upon 
them the word takes some effect, and at once. They 
hear the word and *' immediately receive it with 
gladness." (Mark iv. i6. ) But they ''have no 
deepness of earth.'' (Matthew xiii. 5.) The seed 
grows on a shallow soil spread over a rock. They 
are moved by the word to religious feeling and 
action, but they lack depth of character, and are 
religious only for a time. There is nothing deep 
about them. Everything about them betrays their 
shallowness. If they are servants, they serve 
merely with eye service. If they are mechanics, 
though their work may have external show, it is not 
substantially and thoroughly done. It is finished 
merely to appear well and to answer for the present. 
And their religion takes type from their character. 
They do not dig deep and build upon the rock, but 
upon the unstable quicksand. And so when the 
rains descend and the floods come, their building 
tumbles in ruins. They hear with joy. They are 
easily moved. Their feelings are light and volatile, 
and effervesce upon slight occasion. Tears flow. 



^4 THE PARABLE 

Sighs are heard. Hope and joy gleam upon the 
countenance. But the conviction is superficial and 
soon passes away. 

There is much in the Christian religion to excite 
the affections of the unrenewed man. It may stir 
all that is within him and leave him unrenewed still. 
There is much in it to excite fear and anxiety and 
alarm and dismay, and much to excite awe and 
wonder and reverence and admiration and hope 
and joy. Sin, a holy law, a just and angry God, 
death, judgment^ perdition — God's gracious char- 
acter and work, the incarnation, atonement, accept- 
ance, adoption, sanctification — a gracious providence, 
happy death, a blessed resurrection, a glorious and 
eternal heaven — these are interesting, grand and 
thrilling subjects of meditation, and with them the 
eloquent preacher may arouse, alarm, terrify, melt 
or enrapture the minds of his hearers — ''with ter- 
ror now may freeze the cowering blood and now 
dissolve the soul in tenderness." Thus there is in 
revealed truth that which may move even the feel- 
ings of the natural heart ; and the man of impressi- ^ 
bility and of impulse is moved, often deeply moved, ^ 
and, as it w^ere, transported and wrought into a 
frenzy of fine emotion. He hears the law, and he 
believes and trembles. He hears the gospel, with 
all its offers, and after a sort he embraces them. 
He hopes, he joys. He wonders that every man 
does not do likewise. He is filled with zeal. His 
soul is all on fire. He prays and praises. He 
rejoices and wonders. He is ready to perform great 



I 



OF THE SO WEE. 45 

labors and to make great sacrifices for a time."* 
But, after all, "he has no root in himself."f He 
endureth but for a while; for when tribulation or 
persecution ariseth because of the word, immedi- 
ately he is offended, and falls away. What he 
w^anted and what he expected when he set out was 
a religion of constant calm and sunshine — all smooth 
and prosperous and joyful. But when troubles 
arise from without and from within — when he finds 
that his path to the heavenly Jerusalem lies through 
the sea and the wilderness, and that all the way he 
must use his armor, bear his cross, practice mortifi- 
cation and endure much care, toil, danger, loss and 
sorrow, immediately all his ardor cools, all his zeal 
flags, all his religious feelings evaporate, and he 
longs for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and returns back 
again to the world. 

"He has no root in himself." Beautiful and 
expressive figure! The root is out of sight, and yet 
gives nourishment and stability, life and beauty to 
the tree. So it is with the Christian. His life is 
hid with Christ in God. The fountain-head, whence 
flow all the streams of his spiritual life, is wdth 
Christ and in Christ ; and his faith, grappling hold 
of Christ and growing into him, is the channel 
through which that life flow^s in aburdant and per- 
ennial streams into his bosom. For lack of this 
root; for lack of regeneration, new and divine life 
in his soul ; for lack of that deep and thorough con- 
version of his whole nature and being; and because 
he has never truly died to the world and self and 

•••'■ I Corinthians, xiii. t Matthew xiii. 21. Mark iv. 17. 



^6 'J'^IE PARABLE 

sin, and never truly risen to life in Christ Jesus, the 
temporary believer can not persevere. His religious 
affections were never of the right kind. 

1. He had not sorrow, fear and anxiety in view 
of his sinfulness. He was, perhaps, deeply dis- 
tressed at the thought of the punishment which 
was due to his sin, but he had no grief on account 
of the sin itself. He never saw sin to be inherently 
and exceedingly evil and dreadful and hateful. If 
he might have his way and escape its consequences, 
it is still dear and sweet to him. It was not the sin, 
but only the punishment which was terrible to him. 
He never abandoned it. It was never mortified and 
crucified in the soul. He still held fast to his idols 
in his heart. In a word, he never truly repented. 
He mistook remorse for it. His repentance even in 
his best days was a repentance which needed to be 
repented of. 

2. Nor had he any true love for holiness, or for 
the God of holiness, or for the holiness of the law, 
or for the sanctifying efficacy of the grace of Christ. 
He never truly and deeply desired to be freed from 
the carnal heart, deceitful above all things and des- 
perately wicked. He never longed to know truth 
in the inward part and wisdom in the hidden part, 
and to be all glorious within. As an atoning and 
interceding priest, Jesus may have been dear to him; 
but as a king to rule in his heart, as a physician to 
heal his disease, as a fountain of spiritual life and 
love and holiness, he knew him not, loved him not, 
desired him not. 

And as he never knew or felt the inherent evil of 



OF THE SOWER. 47 

sin per se,^ or his own exceeding sinfulness ; and 
never knew the inherent necessity, beauty, excel- 
lency and blessedness of holiness, and never desired 
it and never loved or desired God on account of it ; 
so he never truly knew his need of Christ for justifi- 
cation and sanctification, and never fled to him nor 
laid hold of him aright. His love of God and Christ 
was not genuine. It was at bottom only a love of 
self. Self was all the while his idol and his god. 
He wanted to be saved and to be happy — nothing 
more ; and God and Christ and holiness and salva- 
tion were all nothing to him except as they stood 
related to his selfish ends. 

Consequently no sooner is the sun arisen with a 
burning heat than his piety withers away. He had 
not counted the cost before he began to build. He 
had not considered all that was involved in a life of 
true religion. He wanted a sunny religion, not a 
sacred one. He wished to be happy, not to be 
holy. Jesus Christ, as a life giving, sanctifying 
Savior, he never embraced truly and cordially, 
from a felt sense of need. Therefore — 

(i.) When persecutions come, because of the 
word, he is offended and apostatizes. Fires, prisons, 
banishment, fines, and civil disabilities, he had not 
counted on, nor will he endure them. Unpopular- 
ity, contempt, hatred, opposition, loss of social 
standing, constant and wearying care — he will not 
endure them — nor shame, nor much loss of time, 
nor much sacrifice of property, nor much loss of 
any kind, nor much labor and effort in behalf of his 

Hn itself;— Ed. 



48 



THE PARABLE 



religion. When required to do so, soon he is 
offended, grows weary in well-doing, and falls away. 

(2.) Nor did he lay his account for much inward 
anguish and spiritual conflict. The old stream of 
worldliness and carnality was never smitten in its 
fountain. He did not at the outset of his religious 
course strive in earnest and make sure of the new 
birth, the new life, the radical conversion, the vital 
union by faith to Christ, nor receive the Holy Spirit, 
the author of all life and holiness, and consequently 
he can carry on no inward warfare against his lusts 
and depravities. The old fountains of selfishness, 
earthliness, ungodliness, still continue to flow, and 
the streams make way for themselves in the old 
channels or find new outlets. 

3. If this stony-ground hearer could hold on 
to his lust and his religion both, he would hold on 
to both, and hence the true, evangelical, Christian 
religion, which will not permit that, has never been 
popular in the world and never will be, until the 
millennial Spirit shall be poured out from on high. 
If they could hold on to their lusts and wickedness, 
they w^ould hold on with even a deadly and fanati- 
cal grip. Witness Pagans, Mohammedans, Papists, 
and among Protestants the formalists and ritualists. 
Such are the religions that are popular in the world 
to-day, that have always been so, and are likely to 
be, until the Pentecostal Spirit returns in its latter- 
day glory and power. The great majority of 
mankind want a religion which yokes God and 
Mammon, Christ and Belial, sin and salvation, and 
which allows the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the 



I 



OF THE SO WER, 



49 



eye and the pride of life, drunkenness, lewdness, 
dishonesty and the whole circle of the sins and 
vices, as not ruinous to the soul, if only the rites of 
religion be attended to, and the magical aid of the 
priests and ministers of religion be secured. 

4. But when the sower sows the true seed, when 
the true teachings of the Bible are presented, it is 
quickly seen that this kind of religion will not do ; 
that happiness must ever go with holiness ; that the 
new birth, growth in sanctification, denial of the 
world, the flesh and Satan, the forsaking of all sin- 
ful practices and indulgences, and entire conse- 
cration to God and his service, are necessary to 
salvation. Whoever is unwilling for all this has 
no spiritual life, no root in himself, no real love for 
God, but only his benefits, no real love for holiness, 
but only for its advantages. He is at best a stony- 
ground hearer, who believes for a time, but soon 
falls away. 

III. The thorny 'ground hearers, Matthew xiii. 7- 
22. Better still than the rocky-ground hearers, but 
yet coming short of salvation, are they who received 
seed among thorns, a class who receive the word 
into the heart and profess religion, and continue in- 
that profession until their dying day, but who 
*' bring no fruit unto perfection" (Luke viii. 14), 
which is practically the same as if they remained 
''unfruitful." (Matthew xiii. 32. Mark iv. 19.) 

These thorny-ground hearers are Christian pro- 
fessors, who, though persevering in their profession, 
yield to the seductive and dissipating influences of 
the world and the flesh, until all true life and spirit- 

5 



so 



TUE PARABLE 



uality are extinguished in the soul. There was 
room in the soil for the growth of either the seed 
or the thorns. So in the heart there i^ room for 
either God or the world, but not for both. *^No 
man can serve two masters : for either he will hate 
the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to 
the one, and despise the other. Ye can not serve 
God and mammon.''^ 

The hindrances to the salvation of this class are : 
I. The cares of the world. These, though tend- 
ing to secularize, distract and dissipate our thoughts, 
are not sinful in themselves. To the pure all things 
are pure. With the spiritual all things tend to 
spirituality. The very multitude and magnitude of 
our toils and cares, if we are rightly exercised, will 
lead us closer to God and urge us onward to a 
higher walk and communion with him. Every thing 
ought to lead our minds up to things divine, unseen 
and eternal, and they would, if we were only 
renewed in the spirit of our minds. Many of the 
holiest of men have been immersed in the world's 
cares — Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Obadiah, 
Daniel, Paul, ev^n our Savior himself. But that 
religious life and communion with God may not be 
choked, two things are requisite — regenejaiion and 
watchfulness. That the thorns may not grow, and 
that the wheat may, cultivation is necessary. The 
thorns must be weeded out and the good seed must 
be fostered. ''I went by the field of the slothful, 
and by the vineyard of the man void of understand- 
ing; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and 

■'•'■ Matthew vi. 24. 



OP THE ^OWER, 51 

nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone 
wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and 
considered it well : I looked upon it, and received 
instruction. ""^ 

It is always a critical period in the spiritual his- 
tory of a professor, when life expands into new and 
enlarged situations, and it is one which terminates 
ruinously with many. When such a crisis happens, 
even to a religious man, what new eagerness excites 
and impels him. He rises earlier, retires later, and 
his whole man is filled with a new energy. And 
oftentimes he does not suspect danger until he is 
carried clean away. His religious energies become 
torpid, his religious feelings dissipated. His zeal 
and relish are gone. He professes as before, acts 
and talks as before. But he is without spiritual life 
and power, and he becomes unfruitful. He has no 
time nor heart now for quiet, solitary communion 
with God, or for the deep and heartfelt communion 
of saints. He has but little time for the closet. 
The family altar falls into decay. He ceases to 
attend the prayer-meeting, and is but seldom seen 
in the church. 

2. Another hindrance to salvation is the deceit- 
fulness of riches, not riches, but the deceitfiilness 
of riches. They are deceitful in this, that they 
promise security and stability, ease and comfort, 
peace, honor and happiness. If possessed by the 
thorny-ground hearer, they become his god. He 
uses unlawful nieans to obtain and retain them ; is 
often puffed up and ungrateful > They ensnare liim 

'=■ Proverbs xxiv. 30-32. 



52 



THE PARABLE 



into pride, vanity, and forgetfulness of God and 
eternal things. They entice him into luxury, effem- 
inacy, indolence and sensuality. It is the pagan 
myth of* the old giant buried under a mountain of 
gold, over again. He may retain his profession cind 
his forms of religion — probably he will. But he 
brings no fruit to perfection* 

If any true Christian falls into this neglect, for- 
getting the culture of his own heart until it is all 
grown over with thorns, ^ then must the thorns be 
weeded out. The pruning-knife must pass over 
this tree. It is a painful work. But painful as it 
may be, he who seeks our spiritual improvement 
more than our present comfort will purge us that 
we may bring forth fruit. His wealth becomes his 
weight, and fire or flood or commercial disaster 
must strip him; or, worse, the shafts of death 
piercing his heart's idols, teaches him the vanity 
of earth, and warns him to seek in heaven a more 
enduring substance. It was for the good of Lot*s 
soul that all his wealth and many of his beloved 
ones were destroyed in Sodom. 

But, alas ! that' these classes should bring forth 
no fruit— that in the midst of all these opportuni- 
ties and urgencies they should pass away into dark- 
ness and perish forever! Almost saved, and yet 
eternally lost — almost renewed, and yet dead ever- 
more — almost made alive in Christ, and yet dying 
the second death! And all this from their own 
folly. The kingdom of heaven had come nigh unto 
.them, and all its remaining fulhiess was ready to be 

'••" Proverbs xxiv. 30. 



I 



OF THE SOWER. 53 

bestowed upon them, and yet they remain hopeless, 
helpless reprobates forever and ever. 

IV. The good-ground hearers. The good-ground 
hearer is one who receives (Matthew) or keeps 
(Luke) the word in an honest and good heart. 
The qualifications for a profitable hearing are as 
follows : 

I. A sincere and honest heart — a renewed heart, a 
heart entirely changed, and supremely and intently 
set on God and spiritual things. These qualities 
are a prime requisite and a high guarantee of suc- 
cess in almost every enterprise. For example, 
almost any man may become rich, if this is his 
whole purpose, if it absorbs his whole time and 
strength, and if for this he sacrifices every other 
consideration. Industry, energy, effort, economy, 
time, will accomplish it. Men who choose, by 
beginning in time, and devoting all their energies, 
with a single purpose, may acquire almost any 
science, art, or accomplishment. 

It is so with salvation. **The kingdom of heaven 
sufifereth violence, and the violent take it by force."* 
Our Savior commands, **Strive" (agonize) '^to enter 
in at the strait gait.^'t There is, however, this 
difference in the pursuit of any earthly object; the 
wisest, the strongest, the most resolute and most 
diligent may be baffled. But those who receive 
the word into good and honest hearts, and set 
themselves to keep it, never fail. They are kept 
by the power of God through faith unto salva- 
tion. 



* Matthew xi. 12. t Luke xiii. 24. 



54 



THE PARABLE 



2. Meditation. The good-ground hearers *'keep '' 
the word (Luke vii. 15) — hold it fast in mind and 
heart, remember it, meditate on it, act in accord- 
ance with it. Meditation is either passive or active. 
In active meditation the object dear to the heart 
constantly presents itself. In active meditation the 
mind sets itself to contriving. In active meditation 
the mind conceives, imagines, rejects, selects, and 
then acts. To the earnest hearer the word often 
presents itself. As a thing beloved it often, comes 
into his mind. He willingly dwells upon its truths, 
invitations and warnings, and decides to act in 
accordance with them. In solitude and silence the 
word is his friend and companion. 

3. Endurance and energy. The good-ground 
hearers are described as ** Bringing forth fruit 
with patience." (Luke viii. 15.) Patience is also 
of two kinds: active and passive. Passive patience 
is endurance with fortitude, and may be denom- 
inated a feminine q ality of mind. Of this Chris- 
tian grace we may refer to Hannah and other 
holy women of old as noble examples. Active 
patience is endurance with heroic energy and deter- 
mination. Such was the patience of the primitive 
martyrs. They endured with the patience of heroes 
rushing on to victory. The Christian must unite 
these two kinds of patience. 

Patience is content to abide its time. The Chris- 
tian is often tempted to be impatient with the slow 
progress of his own growth, and with the slow 
advancement and deferred victory of the Church. 
But the Christian is exhorted to struggle against all 



OF THE SOWER. 



55 



such impatience. Says the inspired apostle: '^Be 
patient, therefore, unto the coming of the Lord. 
Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious 
fruits of the earth, and hath long patience for it, 
until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye 
also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming 
of the Lord draweth nigh."^ The tide rises slowly, 
but it reaches its full height at last. The germ from 
the acorn grows only a very little in a year, but 
m the course of time it becomes the giant, wide- 
spreading oak. It takes years of growth and 
development to transform the child into the full- 
grown man. Then, ^* Let patience have her perfect 
work."f For as certainly as the slowly-growing 
child in time becomes a man, or the slowly-growing 
germ of the acorn becomes the giant oak, just so 
certain will the earnest, faithful, persevering hearer 
of the word arrive at the stature of a full-grown 
man in Christ, and in the end be made meet for par- 
taking of the inheritance of the saints in light ; and 
just so certainly too will the Church, through the 
power of her Almighty Lord, triumph over all oppo- 
sition and conquer the world. 



* James v. 7, 8. t James i. 4. 



56 



THE PARABLE 



SERMON II. 
Parable of theTares and theWheat 

MATTHEW XIII. 24-3O, 36-43. 
{First Sermmi,) 



EXPLICATION. 

By the kingdom of heaven is meant the Christian 
Church on earth, not the kingdom of glory. For 
there are no tares there, and no casting out into the 
fire. In reference to the Church as the kingdom 
of heaven, see Daniel ii. 44; vii. 18, 27. Psalm 
cxlv. 12, 13. Matthew iii. 2; v. 19, 20. Colossians 
i. 18. The Church is the kingdom of heaven inas- 
much as her author, origin, nature and end are 
heavenly. 

I. **A man that sowed seed" represents Christ, 
the author of all grace and graciousness. Christ 
sowed from the beginning, but especially under the 
Christian dispensation. 

II. ''The field" is both the world and the 
Church, for the Church shall be commensurate with 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT. 



57 



the world at last. Matthew xxviii. 18-20. P^phe- 
sians i. 23. Daniel ii. 35, 44. 

III. *^The good seed" represents true Chris- 
tians. They are the sons of God and children of 
the kingdom. Here several things may be noted: 

■ I. There is here brought to view a progress of 
ideas. In the previous parable *'the seed " was the 
gospel of God. Here it is men. The seed there 
sowed has here sprung up in the soul, has become 
incorporated with it, has transformed the soul into 
its own nature and cast it into its mold. The man 
has become the seed, living and incarnate. 

2. That there are Christians in the world is 
entirely owing to Christ. He ^'sowed" them 
there, bought them, called them,' gave them his 
Holy Spirit, sanctifies and keeps them. We were 
lost sheep wandering far ; he sought and found and 
brought us home. We were dead ; he gave us life. 
We were blind, deaf, palsied lepers, full of all infirm- 
ities, enemies of God ; he healed us, transformed 
us, made us willing, dutiful and loving. Let us 
ever give God all the glory. Wearing Christ's 
yoke, and living by faith in him, let us ever bless 
him and glorify the riches of his grace. Let us 
rejoice in him, trust in him, live on him, and serve 
him more and more. Let sinners, in all their sins, 
look to him. He will take them as they are, and 
make them what they ought to be. 

3. Let Christians remember their own character, 
and act accordingly. They are ''the good seed, 
the excellent of the earth, the hidden and chosen 
ones, the elect, the bride, sons, jewels, light of the 



58 THE PARABLE 

world, salt of the earth." Wherein does this 
excellency consist? In the new birth and nature 
received through the Spirit, and in the new life 
thence resulting. This great excellency is not yet 
fully seen by all. But it shall be seen and admired 
by all, when Christians ''shall shine forth as the sun 
in the kingdom of their Father. " 

IV. ''The enemy" is the devil. The devil is not 
a metaphor, but a person, a real existence. The 
parable is metaphorical, but the explanation is 
literal. The sower of the good seed is personal, 
and the antithesis requires us to understands the 
sower of the tares to be also personal. Only will- 
ful perversity can doubt this. Besides, everything 

predicated of the devil in the Scriptures indicates 
him to be a person — entering into Judas, establish- 
ing Romanism, blinding the minds of men, trans- 
forming himself into an angel of light. These are 
the acts of a person, not of a mere metaphor. 

V. " Sowxd tares." This is said to be often 
done in the East and to be a very great injury to 
the agriculturist. They damage the wheat, and 
are difficult to eradicate from the ground. The 
tares were a bastard species of wheat. Botanically, 
they were of the same genus and family, and, while 
growing, of the same appearance and difficult to 
distinguish. But when they are matured, they are 
distinguishable by a child. Moreover, even the 
fruit is said to be composed of the same ingredients, 
but in different proportions and having very differ- 
ent qualities — the wheat healthful and nourishing, 
the tares intoxicating and poisonous. 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT, ^g 

1. Observe the points of the metaphor : 

(i.) Of the same family. We are all the fallen 
sons of Adam. 

(2.) Difidcult to distinguish v/hile growing. So 
of true and false professors. 

(3.) The fruit easily distinguished. So of true 
and false professors and of religious systems. 

(4. ) Very different qualities in the fruit. So of 
saints and sinners. 

2. Satan always and everywhere counterworks 
Christ. So from the beginning, he ever has been, 
and is, ''the adversary," ''Abaddon," "Apollyon." 
Especially has it been so since Christ came. First 
Christ came, and then antichrist ; first apostles, 
and then false apostles ; first prophets, and then 
false prophets; first miracles, and then false mira- 
cles ; first angels, and then Satan transforming 
himself into an angel of light ; first Christ's min- 
isters of righteousness, and then Satan's emissaries, 
transforming themselves as ministers of righteous- 
ness; first the good seed, and then the tares. 
Everywhere and always the devil counterworks 
and mimics Christ. The Apocalypse contains an 
awful revelation of the power, activity and eff'ects 
of Satanic agency. 

VI. "While men slept." That is, silently and 
secretly; when least suspected; under the guise, 
perhaps, of religious zeal. Indeed most of the 
harm done to the Church has been done under this 
pretense, and with the appeamnce of religious 
fervor. Some of the greatest evils have been 
brought in by those who thought they served God. 



6o I'HE PARABLE 

This began under the apostles' eyes and it has been 
continued ever since. It is not known at what pre^ 
cise time the seeds of the most of the evils that 
have afflicted the Church were sowed — episcopacy, 
popery, purgatory, auricular confession, sacramental 
grace, transubstantiation. Som.e of the very worst 
of them began under the very eyes of Paul and 
John. 

VII. ** And went his way.'' Tares need no cul- 
tivation. They grow of themselves. So with false 
doctrines, especially of such as minister to the cor- 
rupt nature of man. So, too, with evil appetites 
and passions in the heart. 

VIII. '*Then appeared the tares also." Ulti- 
mately the tares appear. When they bring forth 
fruit, then the servants can detect them. 

IX. ''Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy 
field? from whence then hath it tares?" The serv- 
ants were surprised and grieved. We may imagine 
the feelings of the apostles and primitive Christians 
to see the evils introduced ; and we know our own 
feelings in view of the sad state of the visible 
Church. 

X. ''Let both grow together." 

1. This is not to be understood to inhibit all dis- 
cipline — else Scripture would contradict Scripture — 
but only rash disciphne. Only God can search the 
heart and infallibly determine the character and 
state of men, and the work must be left to him. 

2. Persecution is forbidden. The conscience is 
free. Our motto should be, "A free religion and a 
religion of freedom." 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT, 6 1 

3. There can be no perfectly pure Church on 
earth. The attempt to secure perfect purity can 
only do harm, rooting up wheat as well as tares, 
dividing and distracting the people of God, and 
often producing a self-righteous, censorious, unchar- 
itable and hypocritical spirit. 

4. Inconsiderate zeal for the purity of the Church 
has often been its bane. Fanatical men do not 
know what manner of spirit they are of. They have 
done immense harm — are doing it now. This spirit 
has divided the Protestant Church. It has pre- 
vented the healing of its divisions, and is doing so 
now. It has destroyed many congregations, ruined 
the usefulness of others, and impaired the peace 
and comfort of some. It is usually cloaked with 
false pretenses, and connected with spiritual pride 
and self-righteousness, conceit, ambition, and self- 
ishness. It will ruin any Church in which it 
prevails. 

There are always some who must have their own 
way — *'rule or ruin men.^' If they do not get their 
own way, they will try to raise parties, create fac- 
tions, inflame prejudices and passions. If such 
courses do not exterminate the Church, they will 
at least destroy its comfort, peace, growth and faith- 
fulness. 

How different all this from the spirit enjoined in 
the New Testament ! — the spirit of love, kindness, 
long-suffering, forbearance and forgiveness — of gen- 
tleness, patience and meekness — of lowliness and 
bumility— that spirit which will lead each to esteem 



62 ^^^ PARABLE 

others better than themselves, in honor preferring 
one another. 

Some object to making a profession and joining 
the Church because there are some bad men- — tares 
- — in it» Let them reflect upon their position in the 
light of this parable. 

The doctrine of these verses is this: At the end 
of the zvorld^ God will ^ by the ministry of angels, finally 
and forever, separate the righteous and the wicked, and 
lie will cast the wicked into the tor7nents of hell^ and 
exalt the righteous to the glory and the bliss of heaven. 

There ought to be no doubt and no two opinions 
about these things among those who receive the 
Bible as the inspired w^ord of God. And we think 
there will be none among those who, unbiased by 
any prejudice or sinister influence, come with an 
open and a candid mind to search the Scriptures 
and to receive their true meaning. Rationalism or 
neology may seek to unsettle our faith, but it will 
only unsettle its own. Far better would it be for 
us all, if, instead of caviling at and questioning these 
great and solemn teachings, we were to live con- 
stantly under the influence of faith in these great 
truths, and address ourselves seriously to a prepa- 
ration for the great and closing scene. Alas ! how 
many will be found pale and trembling then who 
now look high! Awful condition! Let it be our 
care to be ready. 

We have so often heard of the judgment and its 
awful scenes, that our minds have become familiar- 
ized and our feelings hackneyed. We hear of it, 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT. 63 

and then dismiss it from our minds as we would a 
fable or a thrice-told tale. We do not retain the 
doctrine in our thoughts and trv to realize it. We 
almost forget that zve shall be there ; that we shall 
witness it all; that zve shall be judged and awarded. 
This ought not so to be. 1 ought to say to my 
soul, ''Soul, / shall see the glories and the terrors 
of that grand and awful day. I shall be judged. 
God will bring every work of thine into judgment, 
with every secret thing." It is not without cause 
that God in his holy word has lifted the vail and 
given us to know so much of *'that great day." 
We ought diligently to seek out what is written. 
We ought to compare Scripture with Scripture until 
our minds have clear and systematized views of 
all that is revealed, and because it is revealed we 
should receive it with a child\s docility. We ought 
to make a personal application of the truths learned. 
Let this be the object of the present hour. Let 
us call up the Scriptures to our remembrance, and 
try to get a full, clear and connected view, so far as 
it has been revealed. Let us collect and concen- 
trate our thoughts, and try to realize the thing w^e 
know. To do this, let us try for the moment to 
forget the present, and, by a mental effort, transport 
ourselves into the future. Closing our eyes and 
minds to the things that are around us, and trans- 
porting ourselves across the gulf of time, let us, 
through the telescope of revelation, and with the 
eye of faith, survey this grand and closing catas- 
trophe — a God in glory ; a risen and transformed 
race; vanishing heavens, and a world on fire; the 



64 'J'lIE PARABLE 

judgment-seat; assembled angels, men and devils; 
the sifting and the separation; the final sentence 
and its execution. 

The last day has come. The day so long foretold 
by inspired patriarchs, prophets and apostles, the 
day sO long expected by the saints of God, and so 
long derided by scoffing unbelievers, is here. 

But nothing indicates its near approach ; it comes 
*'as a thief in the night. "'^ It may be, for aught we 
know, that all this, instead of being miraculous, as 
we are apt to think, shall be brought about by the 
operation of the laws which now reign in the phys- 
ical and moral world. But if so, it will be by those 
silent forces of the universe, whose operations are 
either not known, or not understood, and therefore 
are not calculable by us. For if they were known 
and could be calculated, then at least scientific men 
could foretell, with considerable accuracy, the time 
and circumstances of the world's destruction. But 
the time is one of those things which the Father 
hath put in his own power. ''Of that day and that 
hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which 
are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. "'f 
Not even the Son as to his human nature knows the 
time of the end. It shall come at last, *' As a snare 
on all them that dwell on the face of the whole 
earth. '';^ It will find the scoffers bold and confident. 
They will tauntingly ask: ''Where is the promise 
of his coming ? for since the fathers fell asleep, all 
things continue as they were from the beginning 

'•' 2 Peter iii. lo. t Mark xiii. 32. % Luke xxi. 35. 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT. 



65 



of the creation.'** But the wise shall understand. 
The saints, weary and oppressed, longing for deliv- 
erance, shall know not the day indeed, but, from 
prophecy and from the signs and tokens in nature 
and society around them, shall know that their 
redemption draweth nigh. They shall know, at 
least the wiser and holier among them shall know, 
something of the time of Christ's second coming, 
and patiently wait for it, as Simeon, Anna and 
other holy and wise persons knew in a general way 
the period of his first coming and joyfully expected 
it. Amid the wide-spread and awful apostasy of 
their day, amid the bitter and frightful persecutions 
to which they shall be exposed, they shall know, 
as they shall see the armies and navies of Gog and 
Magog drawing near to '^ compass the camp of the 
saints about, and the beloved city/'f that those 
armies shall not enter their city, nor shoot an arrow 
there, but that deliverance shall come from heaven, 
and they shall look up and lift up their heads, know- 
ing ''that it is nigh, even at the doors."]; 

And now the last day has come and brings no 
sign. The sun shines brightly ; the clouds sail as 
softly ; the birds sing as cheerily ; the flowers bloom 
as sweetly ; harvest-field and forest wave as gently ; 
hill and dale and sea spread out as beautifully 
grand ; brook and breeze flow on as freely, and low- 
ing herds and nibbling flocks fleck the plains as 
peacefully as before. The rested husbandman goes 
cheerily forth to his toil, calculating the proceeds 
of his industry and skill, and forming plans for the 

* 2 Peter iii. 4. t Revelation xx. 9. % Mark xiii. 29. 

6 



66 THE PARABLE 

future. The mechanic is early at the loom or lathe 
or forge; the merchant early at his desk or the 
exchange. The man of pleasure is now retiring to 
rest after the night's revelry or debauch, as birds 
and beasts of night slink off to their nests and lairs 
before the morning's dawn. The city's din and 
uproar booms with growing swell to the clear, blue 
sky. The bridegroom and the bride put on their 
gay and glad attire. The eloquent advocate weaves 
in busy brains, or pours from cunning tongue, his 
subtle, polished plea. The steel-clad warrior bestirs 
himself to fields of carnage. The battle-ship trim- 
med for the strife proudly sweeps forward in her 
foaming course. ''As the days of Noah were, so 
shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For 
as in the days that were before the flood they 
were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in 
marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 
and knew not until the flood came and took them 
all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of 
man be."* 

But suddenly appear the sign of the Son of man 
in heaven. ''As the lightning cometh out of the 
east and shineth even unto the west," so sudden, so 
far-flashing and all-enveloping, is the coming of the 
Son of man. Every eye sees him. He comes in 
all the stormy spendor of the clouds of heaven. He 
comes in all the glory of his Father. His head and 
hairs are white like wool, as white as snow. He 
calls the earth to judgment. He descends from 
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 

* Matthew xxiv. 37-39. 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT. 



67 



angel and with the triumph of God. He comes 
and all his holy angels with him. He comes with 
ten thousands of his saints. The earth trembles and 
shakes. The foundations of the hills are moved and 
shaken, because he is wroth. There goes smoke 
out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth 
devours, and coals are kindled by it. He bows the 
heavens also and comes down, and darkness is under 
his feet. He rides on a cherub and flies ; yea^ his 
flight is on the wings of the wind.* 

He comes with a shout, and sound of a trumpet 
and archangel's voice. And what a voice, what a 
shout, what a trumpet sound is that pealing through 
the universe ! The heavens hear it, and with a agreat 
noise vanish away. Living and dead, angels above 
and devils beneath, hear it, and come at the call. 
Beast, fish and fowl hear it, turn to ashes and are 
no more. The armies and navies^ besieging the 
camp of the saints, see the far-flashing glory and 
feel the deep rushing Presence and Power, and 
instantly the volleyed roar of battle is hushed at its 
mid thunder. The city's boom is in an instant 
turned into a wailing cry. The huge oath half- 
uttered freezes on the trembling lips of him who 
began to utter it. The debauchee shrinks back and 
stands aghast, calling in vain on the rocks and 
mountains. The gleaming dagger drops from the 
nerveless grasp of the palsied assassin. The shabby 
Shylock lets fall from powerless hands the gold for 
which he sold his soul. The cunning tongue of the 
unprincipled and venal advocate, swollen and black, 

* Psalm xviii. 7-10. 



68 THE PARABLE 

has losts its skill. And blooming youth and wrink- 
led age, and rosy virtue and shriveled vice — all,, all 
stand in mute amaze and breathless expectation, 
every eye and heart intent. 

Nor do the living alone stand in mute expectancy. 
The dead are raised. All that were in their graves 
have heard the voice of the Son of God and have 
come forth — they that have done good to the resur- 
rection of life, and they that have done evil to the 
resurrection of damnation. The sea has given up 
the dead that v/ere in it, and death and the grave 
have given up the dead that were in them, and now 
all, both small and great, stand before God. Vast 
assembly ! What countless thousands of millions ! 
Earth has never seen the like. 

And singular and strange appears that multi- 
tude — all stripped now of every accident of birth 
and fortune ; none rich or none poor ; no lord or 
lady ; no domineering, heartless master or crushed 
and helpless victim; none high or low; none hel- 
meted or greaved or girded ; none crowned or 
bedecked in fine array ; no brow of pride ; no leer- 
ing, wanton look; no simulation or dissimulation. 
All are upon a perfect level, save in moral worth or 
turpitude — every eye brightly beaming with high 
expectancy, or bloodshot, glaring, and wild with 
horror too big for utterance — each feeling in them- 
selves beforehand, doubtless, the impending sen- 
tence of joy or woe. 

Nor do these countless millions constitute a moi- 
ety of that immense assembly. **The angels which 
kept not their first estate, but left their own habita- 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT, 69 

tions, and were cast down to hell, reserved under 
chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great 
day," have heard that voice and shout and trumpet 
peal summoning them ; and with clanking chains 
and robes of flame and gnashing teeth have come 
forth from the red, roaring bosom of the lake of 
fire ; and now, in the very presence of the awful 
ruin they have wrought upon themselves and these 
assembled millions of men, stand, as prisoners of 
wrath, shivering before their Judge — all strength, 
all hope, all courage, all fortitude gone. 

Nor yet are these all of that vast assemblage. 
Jesus has come and all the holy angels with him. 
Angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, 
principalities and powers, as servitors or spectators, 
are all there. They admire Christ in his saints. 
They are taught, through the Church, the manifold 
wisdom of God, and all see the ineffable consumma- 
tion of that mystery which through ages had been 
their study ; and, looking upon it all with awe and 
admiration, they receive instruction, and are filled 
with glory. 

Such the assembly. But the Judge and the judg- 
ment throne ! Evefy eye sees them. Jesus is the 
Judge. **His garment white as snow, and the hair 
of his head like the pure wool ; his throne like the 
fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery 
stream issues and comes forth from before him; 
thousand thousands minister unto him, and ten 
thousand times ten thousand stand before him ; the 
judgment is set, and the books are opened."^' 

* Daniel vii. 9, 10. 



70 



THE PARABLE 



And now comes the separation between the right- 
eous and the wicked, and this by the ministry of 
the angels. The wheat and the tares grew together 
until now. But now the harvest is come, and the 
Judge says to the reapers, '* Gather ye together 
first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn 
.them ; but gather the wheat into my barn." Or to 
explain the figure, the Son of man, the man Christ 
Jesus, now the judge of quick and dead, shall send 
forth his angels, and first they shall gather out of 
his kingdom all things that offend, and them which 
do iniquity, as tares and chaff are separated from 
the wheat. It is thus that by the ministry of angels, 
the Son of man, seated on the throne of his glory, 
gathers before him all nations, and separates them 
from one another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep 
from the goats. And what a separation, what a 
change! Oh! there will be sad, strange sunderings 
that day. True professors separated from false, 
saints separated from sinners, wives separated from 
husbands and husbands separated from wives, chil- 
dren from parents and parents from children, bro- 
thers and sisters from sisters and brothers, pastors 
from people and people from pastors, neighbor from 
neighbor and friend from friend. There are some 
who, on earth and in time, refused to join the Chris- 
tian Church at all, or, being members, withdrew 
from it, because they said it had unworthy mem- 
bers — tares among the wheat — who now take their 
sad place on the left; while some of those weak, 
sorely tried, but at bottom true-hearted professors, 
with whom they would not fellowship — at last 



vF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT. yi 

refined and purified — take their place on the right. 
Oh, what anguish will be connected with that sepa- 
ration ! What a far-sounding wail is that which 
rises from the reprobate, as by the infallible and 
resistless ministry of the angels, they find them- 
selves thus segregated and swept to the left — a 
groan and wail and shriek, harsh and discordant, 
of exquisite misery and of utter despair. It turns 
*'the cheek of darkness pale/' it makes '^ the knees 
of terror quake " to hear it. And all the devils, as 
they stand confronted with this great ruin wrought 
by their own hands and which is now to recoil on 
their own heads, shrink and quail at the terrible 
exposition, and would gladly flee from the ruin 
they have wrought. But now this appalling thing, 
heavy as the wrath of God, shall rest upon them 
and crush them downward evermore. And then the 
righteous also, by the same ministry, are carried 
to their appointed place on the Judge's right, the 
place of beauty, glory and reward. 

But it may be asked, How are the angels compe- 
tent to make this separation ? Is it not the exclusive 
prerogative of God to search the heart and try the 
reins? And how then are the angels able to make 
the separation with infallible accuracy? We answer, 
That the tares and wheat, formerly in the outset so 
much alike, have now grown to maturity. What 
once was so obscure is now plain and visible to all. 
Even a child could not misjudge tares and wheat, 
when both are matured and ripened. No more can 
the angels mistake the righteous and the wicked. 
They differ in their entire aspect. These — the 



72 



THE PARABLE 



righteous — come forth on this glorious, dreadful 
day, shining in body, soul and spirit, like the sun. 
They have been transformed and become like their 
glorious Savior and Judge. Heaven, earth and hell 
discern that likeness. But those — the wicked — 
wear another form, oh how repulsive and terrible! 
Truly, they have risen to shame and everlasting 
contempt — an abhorring to themselves and to all 
that behold them. 

And now the judgment is set and the books are 
opened. The record of every man's life and char- 
acter is produced and authenticated in the sight of 
all. And now that private and individual judgment, 
which was pronounced upon each man when at 
death he was assigned to an everlasting heaven or 
an everlasting hell, is publicly vindicated before all, 
and to the full and eternal conviction of all angels, 
men and devils, who henceforth and forever know 
that the judgment was just. 

Next shall the sentence, the irrevocable and irre- 
sistible sentence, be pronounced by the lips of the 
Judge. The righteous shall receive their sentence 
first. For even here on the judgment-seat he is 
**that same Jesus still,'' delighting in mercy, and 
glad and hastening to reveal it. *'Then shall the 
King," with a breast and eye aglow, and a voice 
mellow and musical with love, ''say unto them on 
his right hand. Come ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world."* The sentence being 
given it shall be executed. For then shall that 

^ Matthew 5ixv, 34, 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT, 



73 



great and bright and blest assembly, ^^Be caught 
up into the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and 
so shall ever be with the Lord."'^ And as they are 
caught away, and as the opening pearly gates, flash- 
ing in the light of heaven, swing wide aback upon 
their golden hinges to receive them, what a shout 
and what a song is that we hear? ''Blessing, and 
honor, and 'glory, and power, be unto him that 
sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for- 
ever and ever. Unto him that loved us and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood, and hath 
made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, 
to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. 
Amen."f That song and shout are loud as the 
sound of many waters, far-rolling as the sound of 
mighty thunderings, and musical beyond expression 
and beyond all previous conception. Once, when 
God laid the foundations of the earth, the morning 
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy. I Again, at the birth of the Babe of Beth- 
lehem, who now sits upon the judgment throne, 
there was a multitude of the heavenly host, praising 
God, and saying : *' Glory to God in the highest, 
and on earth peace, good-will toward men."§ But, 
I think, that neither earth nor heaven has ever 
heard before such music as now swells out from 
that glorious and innumerable throng, as on rosy 
wings, in robes of light, they grandly sweep aloft 
through the pearly gates. The very heart and soul 
of heaven's joy and love and glory and transport 



"-•■ I Thessalonians iv. 17. t Revelation v. 13; i. 5. 
X Job xxxviii. 6, 7. § Luke ii. 14. 



74 ' I'liE PARABLE 

quiver and vibrate in those far-resounding notes, 
and the old earth, like the fabled Phoenix, seems as 
if it were expiring in song. Glorious finale this! 
Ye, who have come out of great tribulation, ye, w4io 
in a great fight of affliction were, amid tears and 
anguish, faithful unto death and overcame at last. 
No more battles or tears. No more outward con- 
flicts or inward agonies. A long lifetime of mor- 
tification and crucifixion and self-denial and deep 
soul-travail, were not worthy to be compared with 
one hour of this far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory. 

But far to the left, beneath a dark and stormy 
cloud, the surging, furrowed bosom of which is 
tossed and. laboring with the pent-up elements of 
that wrath which only awaits the bidding of its 
Master to break forth in all its infinite fury, there 
cower and quail the lost reprobates, unto whom it 
is said by Him whose judgments are just and irre- 
sistible, '* Depart from me, ye that work iniquity."^ 
And, O my brethren, what a groan of speechless, 
hopeless and intolerable misery is that which rings 
out from that utter darkness, as the stern, inexo- 
rable Judge pronounces the sentence of everlasting 
doom. Earth has heard many a sound of pitiful 
lamentation, since sin blighted it, but none like that 
before. 

It is pitiful to see the stricken mother when her 
only boy lies in the agonies of death, or the deliri- 
ous young wife, as she kneels over the coffin of her 
dead husband, and embraces the lifeless idol of 



Matthew vii. 23. 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT 



75 



her heart, and wrings her hands and pours out her 
very soul in low and sorrowful moanings, and calls 
in tones, as if she would pierce the leaden ear, and 
wake and warm the icy heart, of death itself to life 
again. It is pitiful to see the loving and confiding, 
but betrayed and forsaken girl, the banned and 
banished daughter, the hopeless, homeless, shelter- 
less, friendless, scorned mother of a tender babe, 
pale, heart-broken and wandering afar — she recks 
not w^here— over the wintry plains, through the 
moonless, freezing night, as, pressing that babe 
closer to her bony bosom to keep it warm, she 
sinks amid the drifting snow to die. And that 
infant's weak and hungry cry, and that delirious 
mother's raving, dying lullaby ! oh, 'tis sad, 'tis 
pitiful. When the proud and venturous bark is 
caught in Norway's Maelstrom, and whirled round 
and round with arrowy speed in the concentric 
circles of the giddy and whizzing whirlpool, until 
it is dragged down into the engulfing sea, it were 
sad to see the livid faces of the despairing crew 
upturned for the last time to the light of heaven, 
and to hear the piercing shriek of dread dismay 
as it swells out upon the shuddering air and rings 
on the ear such an accent of agony as he that 
hears it will not wish to hear it again. But what 
are all these, and what are all the other sights and 
sounds of harrowing distress that our old, stricken, 
weary, groaning globe has ever heard, all put 
together, compared with that loud, long, wild, 
deep, dismal burst of utter, hopeless agony, whicli 
doomed reprobates now utter, as they hear thc^ 



*j^ TEE PARABLE 

sentence and sink beneath it, down, down, down, 
lower and lower ^nd lower, in that ** bottomless 
pit," the lake of fire and brimstone, where are the 
devil and his angels, the smoke of whose torment 
ascendeth up forever and ever.; 

But enough, dear friends, enough. Let us now 
withdraw our minds from these grand and awful 
scenes. Thank God, time yet lasts. Jesus has not 
yet ascended the throne of judgment. He yet is 
seated on a throne of grace, and graciously calls 
upon you and me to come to him, and assures all 
who come of a cordial reception and of eternal 
life. Let us hear and obey. Let us turn and live. 
We are great sinners, but he is a great and willing 
Savior — mighty to save — able to save even unto the 
uttermost all who come unto God by him. Blessed 
Jesus, have mercy on us, and send thy Spirit to turn 
us away, every one, from our iniquities, and to give 
us life and make us holy. 

CONCLUSION. 

I. Christians, the ksson of the text concerns you. 
Seeing all these things must come to pass, what 
manner of men ought ye to be in all holy conver- 
sation and godhness ? Hence learn to be faithful ; 
to resist temptation ; to practice self-denial ; to mor- 
tify your members which are on the earth ; to die 
unto sin, and to live unto righteousness. Learn to 
maintain, at every cost, a warfare against the lusts 
of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of 
life — to be honest, truthful, chaste, loving, gentle, 
sober and circumspect. Covet no ill-gotten gain, 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT, 77 

though you should be poor all your days. Covet 
and indulge in no unlawful pleasures, though they 
be as a right hand or a right eye. Covet no honor, 
promotion or power except such as is clearly consist- 
ent with a good conscience, a pure heart and a holy 
life. Practice no falsehood and no guile, though 
they should bring you all the kingdoms of the world 
and the glory of them. But cherish truth, frank- 
ness, candor, honesty in all things, cost what it may. 
Give away to no malignant or angry passions, no 
matter what be the provocation. Imitate Christ, 
who when he was reviled, reviled not again. Become 
spiritually-minded. Set your affections on things 
above. Count everything but loss, that you may 
win Christ, and be found in him. Love Jesus and 
God in him, with all your heart and with all your 
soul. Let it be the whole business of your life to 
do always those things which please him. Never 
indulge in any sinful conformity to the world in 
heart, speech or action ; but be transformed into 
the image of Christ. Seek to obtain all the fruits 
of the Holy Spirit in your heart and life, and never 
rest content without them. Look to God for all 
grace and strength and blessing. 

Be earnest. Be constant. The time is short. 
The reward is great. Like your Savior, have re- 
spect to the 'recompense of the reward. Cost you 
what it may to be a Christian, a deeply experi- 
enced and richly endowed Christian, grudge not 
the sacrifice. These little sacrifices, these short 
conflicts and struggles and sorrows, are not worthy 



78 THE PARABLE 

to be compared with that far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory which awaits you. And 
let me repeat it again, Go to Jesus in all your needs. 
He will always cause you to triumph. 

2. The lesson of the text equally concerns the sin- 
ner. It warns him to flee from the wrath to come. 
Surely you would not wish to be found among the 
tares. Surely it were infinitely better to endure, 
if need be, every earthly sorrow than that sorrow. 
Surely your judgment and reason, and all that is 
within you, tell you it were better to cut off the 
right hand and pluck out the right eye, and give 
your body to be burned, than to be cast with the 
tares into hell. Will you then not now act on this 
conviction before it is too late ? If so, I am the 
messenger of good news and of glad tidings of 
great joy. You may be saved. ''God so loved 
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but 
have everlasting life.''* Go as you are to Jesus. 
Take him as your Savior. Surrender yourself into 
his hands for salvation. He will pardon you. He 
will receive you just as you are. He will renew and 
sanctify you and make you meet for heaven. 

But says one: '*! know it, but my heart is cor- 
rupt, hard, dead. I can not turn, repent, believe, 
hate sin, love God, or do anything that is good. I 
resolve, I try, I fail again and again. There is no 
hope. I am lost.'' 

Nay, but Jesus is mighty to save. Go to Him. 

* John iii. i6. 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT. 



79 



Look to Him. Cast all on Him. He will take you 
as you are, and do all things for you. 

Go to Him in your sins — He will pardon. 

Go to Him in your ignorance — He will enlighten. 

Go in your depravity — He will renew. 

Go in your uncleanness — He will sanctify. 

Go in your spiritual death — He will give life. 



So THE PARABLE 



SERMON III. 
Parable OF THE Tares AND THE Wheat 



MATTHEW XIII. 43. 
{Second Sermon.) 



This text seems to be very plain and easy to be 
comprehended. But except those passages of Scrip- 
ture which relate to God's character, there is no 
text in the Bible more difficult to be fully compre- 
hended. In order that we may to some extent com- 
prehend it, let us notice what the subject of the 
text is, and what is affirmed concerning it. 

1. The saint, the glorified saint, as he is in 
heaven, after the resurrection, is the subject of the 
text. The text does not discourse of heaven, but 
of the saint in heaven. Consequently, to open it 
up, we are not called upon to speak of God, or the 
angels, or the heavenly Jerusalem, or the palms of 
victory, or the crowns of gold, but simply of the 
saints^ their constitution and character. 

2. Of the saints in glory, the single affirmation is 
that there they ''shall shine as the sun.'' Note the 
language. It tells you not where heaven is, nor what 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT 8 1 

it IS. It does not discourse of the employments, 
or the enjoyments, or the companions of the saints ; 
but, fixing your attention upon the saints alone, it 
simply says they ''shall shine as the sun." 

The constitution and character of the glorified 
saints are the theme of the text. Let it be the 
theme of this discourse. But what are the ideas 
which this language conveys? To answer this, we 
must investigate the Scriptures; we must compare 
Scripture with Scripture; and we must think pa- 
tiently and closely. Otherwise this hour's service 
will not profit. 

I. It seems obvious in the first place to remark 
that the language employed is to be understood, 
mainly, not in a literal, but a metaphorical sense. 
There may be material light and splendor in heaven ; 
and, if so, the saints will be luminous beyond ex- 
pression. Or it may be that the thing which we 
call light has relation and place only in the present 
state of being, and that the new heavens and the 
new earth, which shall be hereafter, will be utterly 
and inconceivably different from the present. On 
this point I entertain and express no opinion. But 
however this may be, mofal radiancy is evidently 
the idea mainly intended in the text. 

(i.) Light, metaphorically used, is expressive of 
lifey knowledge y holiness ^ or inoral purity and joy. All 
this is predicated of the saints, when they are said 
to shine as the sun. Of this w^e will presently say 
more. 

(2. ) The sun shines with a radiated ^ not a reflected 
light. It shines not, like the moon, with a light 



82 THE PARABLE 

borrowed from another, but with its own inherent 
beams. The saints, Hke the sun, shine in their 
own splendor — from the inherent luminosity of their 
own nature. They shine in their own inherent life, 
knowledge, purity and joyfulness. These qualities 
abound in them, and shine forth in their radiant 
beauty. 

(3.) If we are to take the figure in its full mean- 
ing, the saints possess these characteristics in a. far 
more eminent degree than any created beings in 
heaven. The sun shines in a supreme and lordly 
splendor. No luminary in all the heavens is at all 
comparable to it. And so, we think, it shall be 
with the saints, as compared with the other holy 
creatures that reign and rejoice, shine and sing in 
heaven. Nor let it be thought extravagant to think 
so — for is there not a reason? Without depending 
exclusively on the figure in the text, let it be con- 
sidered that no others have attained such a right- 
eousness as theirs. Others shine in their "own 
righteousness — a creature righteousness, but these 
in the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of 
Jesus Christ, and which is upon all them that be- 
lieve. ^ Those are there in virtue of their own merit, 
but these in virtue of the merit of Emmanuel. And 
shall not the transcendently superior claims of that 
righteousness be regarded in the persons who wear 
it ? Besides, the saints alone of all heaven's bright 
inhabitants have occupied the post of danger, toil 
and honor, in that great moral contest which is 
going on between God and Satan for the mastery. 

*' Romans iii. 22, 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT 83 

That conflict constitutes the most awful fact in the 
history of the universe, so far as we know. To our 
knowledge, there has been nothing like it hereto- 
fore, nor shall be hereafter. True, there is nothing 
dubious as to the final issue of that conflict. God 
will in his own time and way '' gather out of his 
kingdom" (not only in this world, but also through- 
out the universe) ''all things that offend, and them 
that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace 
of fire.''* But it is equally true that this contest is 
mysterious, awful, wide-spread and tremendous, 
involving the character and throne of God and the 
destiny of all created beings. The issue will be 
*' glory to God in the highest." Through it, his 
character and sovereignty will shine forth with aug- 
mented luster before all worlds and ages. And as 
in that contest the saints alone occupy the post of 
toil and danger and loss and suffering ; as they are 
among the heavenly armies, the vanguard and for- 
lorn hope; and, as they wear the wounds and scars 
of battle, is it unreasonable that in the coming tri- 
umph they should receive a corresponding recogni- 
tion and reward ? This contest involves them, and 
them alone of all holy creatures, in ''great tribula- 
tion," and is it unreasonable that they shall enjoy a 
corresponding measure of eternal glory? Shall the 
truth imaged forth in the text, that among all the 
sons of glory, they shall shine in peerless splendor, 
as the sun among the luminaries of heaven, be 
thought incredible? Let this great truth then 
cheer, console and encourage us Christians when 

* Matthew xiii. 41, 42. 



84 



THE PARABLE 



ready to faint and fall amid the heat and weariness 
and" anguish of this great strife. Let us have 
respect, as Christ had, to the recompense of the 
reward, and let us remember that *^our light afflic- 
tion, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a 
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory."* 
And looking to the great Source of all protection, 
strength, sanctity, victory and reward, let us in 
patience possess our souls, knowing that we shall 
receive this peerless crown of life. 

II. But let us return again to the inquiry in 
regard to the import of the words, ^*Then shall 
the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom 
of their Father." To have any adequate concep- 
tion of this we must search all the Scriptures, and 
carefully ponder what they say concerning the char- 
acter of the glorified saints. To examine, in detail, 
all the passages relating to this subject was a work 
too unwieldy for this discourse. But there is one 
passage which seems to embody in itself the sub- 
stance of all the rest. Let us turn to it, promising 
that to understand it at all will require much thought 
both in the speaker and hfearer. It is found in i 
John, 3d chapter, 2d verse : ** We know that, when 
he shall appear, we shall belike him; for we shall 
see him as he is." Let us inquire what Christ is, 
and hence learn what we shall be. Our bodies and 
souls in glory shall be like the body and soul, the 
humanity of Christ. This is the great archetype 
and model after which we shall be formed on the 
morning of the resurrection. What, therefore, 

''• 2 Corinthians iv. 17. 



UF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT. 85 

does all this import ? The words are few, but are 
full of meaning. 

I. To be like Christ implies that we shall be free 
from all stain or taint of sin, Christ is so, and to 
suppose the possibility of the opposite with regard 
to him w^ere utter blasphemy. With just reason 
the cherubim cry, *'Holy, holy, holy." And in 
holiness we shall be like him. Our guilt, removed 
through his atonement when we believed, shall 
never return to shame or to condemn us, but is 
blotted out, and shall no more be mentioned or be 
brought into mind. All the remaining unholiness 
of character, which still cleaves to the most saintly 
of Christians here, shall in heaven be totally and 
forever cleared away. Even the sun has his dark 
spots. But there the saints are ''without spot or 
wrinkle, or any such thing, being holy and without 
blame before him in love.'"^ The king's daughter, 
outwardly adorned with the gold-embroidered gar- 
ments, needle-wrought, that is, the spotless right- 
eousness of Christ, received by faith, and which 
shall be upon her forever, is also, through the 
transforming influences of the Holy Spirit, made all 
glorious within by unwrought holiness. She is holy, 
as God is holy. Not one impure desire, not the 
slightest shadow of an unholy imagining, even for a 
moment, flits across the bright disk of that glorious 
sun. Now, for the first time, can the King say, in 
all the fullness of meaning, ''Behold, thou art fair, 
my love ; behold, thou art fair . . . there is no spot in 
thee."f No more ungodliness; no more carnality; 

■•'• Epliesians v. 27. t Canticles iv. I, 4. 



86 "THE PARABLE 

no more idolatry of the creature or of self; no more 
unbelief or doubt or fear ; no more coldness or fee- 
bleness of the affections toward God; but a pure, 
bright, intense and constant flame and glow of all 
holy and devout affections toward God, and of all 
just, loving, benevolent, tender feelings toward all 
created beings- — body, soul and spirit, with all their 
parts and powers being swallowed up in God, and 
God all their salvation and all their desire. Whom 
have they in heaven but God, and what is there in 
all the universe that they desire beside him ? 

2. To be like Christ in heaven is to have a body 
like his. Christ was raised, or rather arose, from 
the dead. The sacred body, which was taken down 
from the cross and laid in Joseph's tomb, did not 
remain there, or see corruption. On the third day 
it arose, returned to life — even that same body — 
and at the end of forty days ascended to heaven. 
But though the very body, which had been laid in 
the grave, arose, it was then and forever greatly 
changed. It became thenceforth V a spiritual 
body,"^ with new properties and powers. Not 
much is said of these newly acquired priDperties by 
his biographers.' But from the little that is said, 
and from what is dropped here and there through- 
out the New Testament, much can be gathered. 

Some of the negative properties of that ^'spirit- 
ual body '' are such as these: 

(i.) It is infrangible. It can not be broken, or 
severed, or dislocated, or lacerated. It can not 



* I Coi'inthians xv. 44. 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT. 8/ 

suffer a lesion of parts. It remains an integer for- 
ever. 

(2.) It is indissoluble and indestructible. It shall 
see no corruption, decay or disintegration. In all 
its entirety it is eternal. 

(3.) It is impassible. It not only shall not suffer, 
but it can not suffer. There shall be no more curse, 
no more death, no more sorrow, nor crying, nor 
any more pain ... It shall hunger no more, neither 
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on it, 
nor any heat. ^ 

(4. ) There shall be no weakness, weariness or 
want. There shall be no old age, with its burdens 
and helplessness. In a word, there shall be no 
defect, no blemish, no evil at all, forever and ever. 

Some of the positive properties of ''the spiritual 
body" are as follows : 

(i.) Being no longer flesh and blood, it could 
transfuse itself, without apparent difficulty, through 
walls, closed doors, or other material bodies, as 
light through a transparent medium. Thus, when 
*'the disciples were assembled, the doors being 
shut for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in 
the midst, "t We shall be like him, 

(2.) It could seemingly change its form and 
appearance at pleasure. Thus, his own disciples 
on the way to Emmaus did not know Jesus, until 
he revealed himself to them, at their evening meal. 
We shall be like him, 

(3.) It seemed entirely subject to his will. It 
was not controlled by gravitation, and probably not 

* Revelation xxi. 4; vii. 16. t John xx. 19. 



88 THE PARABLE 

by other cosmical laws or conditions, as human 
bodies now are, but was entirely subject to the 
control of the will. When the time came, he 
ascended to heaven, by his own volition. We shall 
be like him, 

3. The spiritual body will be very beautiful, com- 
manding and glorious. This seems to be intimated 
in the phraseology of the text. The appearance 
of our Savior on the mount of transfiguration was 
of such effulgent splendor and majesty as to over- 
power the onlooking apostles, so that they were not 
able to behold. At the appearance of the angels 
to Daniel and John, they were overcome by the 
glory of the presence and became almost as dead 
men, and we know that the saints ** shall be equal 
to the angels." Nay, more; we know that the 
body of Christ is *' exalted far above'' all material 
forms that are in heaven or in earth, * in all that 
constitutes beauty and grandeur of appearance. It 
is declared in the Scriptures to be so glorious and 
majestic, as he sits on the great white throne to 
judge the world, that the heavens and the earth are 
unable to bear the flood bf divine effulgence, and 
flee away, shrinking, as it were, into annihilation 
for shelter, f We shall be like him, ^*Sown in cor- 
ruption, we shall be raised in incorruption ; sown in 
dishonor, we shall be raised in glory ; sown in weak- 
ness, we shall be raised in power. ''J 

4. These bodies shall always be young and 
strong, and full of all agreeable and delightful sen- 



* Ephesians i. 21. t Revelation xx. 1 1. 
X I Corinthians xv. 42, 43. 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT go 

sations. Such is Christ's body — the happiest and 
strongest material thing that ever was or ever shall 
be — able to do anything its soul wills and to enjoy 
every possible felicity. ''We shall be like him." 
Our youth shall be sempiternal ; our strength and 
activity almost infinite ; nothing will be hard to us 
that is the proper object of effort. ''Sown in weak- 
ness, raised in power." Material substances will 
be no obstruction, gravitation no hindrance. 

5. These bodies shall be endowed with the pow- 
ers of rapid motion. The angels are thus endowed. 
They fly at pleasure as fast and far as the light or 
lightning. Christ's body is also endowed with the 
power of rapid motion. When he shall return at the 
end of the world, his coming will be as lightning. 
We shall be like him. We shall be equal to the 
angels, perhaps even more spiritual, subtle and fleet 
than they, and every motion will be a pleasure and 
a joy. 

6. The bodily senses will be greatly improved. They 
will be subject to no accident or decay. They will 
have unlimited scope. Christ must see all objects 
and hear all sounds, else he could not exercise uni- 
versal dominion. 

Here our senses are limited as to their objects, 
being able to act only within certain distances, and 
in certain conditions. We may have, probably 
shall have, new senses. We know that matter has 
properties of which we have no direct perception. 
Probably its unperceived and unknown qualities and 
workings are more numerous than those which are 
known. But however this may be, and however so 
8 



go THE PARABLE 

many latent and unknown powers of matter shall 
then be developed, we shall have immediate, infal- 
lible and perfect knowledge of them all. Our 
senses will probably be greatly increased in num- 
ber, each indefinitely more perfect, able to act 
infallibly and constantly, not only without exhaus- 
tion and weariness, but with constant pleasure and 
joy — ^joy unalloyed and pleasure intense and pain- 
less. 

Thus our bodily senses, when like Christ's, shall 
discern all material qualities and activities, and be 
blessed in the exercise. Thus shall we be able to 
discern the power, wisdom and goodness of God in a 
higher degree and wider sphere ; and thus shall we 
be fully qualified, as the high priests of the mate- 
rial universe, to render to God adequate glory and 
praise in a/l his works. 

III. To be like Christ implies that our glorified 
spirits shall be like Ids. 

1. They shall be free from all sin and from all 
tendency to sin. They shall be delivered from all 
atheism, hatred of God and ungodlinesss — from all 
lusts of the flesh and of the mind, covetousness, 
envy, pride, ambition, and from all carnal, worldly 
and sinful thoughts, affections, desires, feelings and 
propensities — from the power of Satan and all 
machinations and influences— from unbelief, cold- 
ness, formality, indifference, lukewarmness, and 
from every defect and imperfection. 

2. They shall be delivered from all the conse- 
quences of sin — from condemnation, from spiritual 
death, from the wrath of God, from all satanic and 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT 



91 



worldly temptations, from all obstructions of the 
divine favor, and from all ignorance, darkness, fear, 
weakness and error. 

3. They shall be restored to perfect holiness. 
They will be endued with a tendency and impulse 
to all righteousness. Such will be their disposi- 
tion and nature that it will be easy, natural and 
morally necessary to love God. They will be pure 
in aim, motive, feeling, principle and action. Fixed 
and unalterably confirmed in all holiness and right- 
eousness, they can fall never more. 

4. They shall be possessed of all the fruits and 
consequences of perfect and confirmed righteous- 
ness and holiness. In the heavenly state they are 
not only justified and accepted, but publicly owned 
and adopted. God and Christ are publicly pledged 
in the covenant of redemption to be theirs, and 
to defend them from sins, sorrows, death and all 
enemies, and to fill them with holiness, peace, 
joy, and all other blessings. Whatever good they 
are capable of enjoying in body, soul and spirit 
shall be theirs. And the capacity of the re- 
deemed for activity and enjoyment shall be won- 
derfully enlarged. Their intellectual powers shall 
be immeasurably strengthened, harmonized and 
exalted. To understand something of this, we 
must consider how great is the human intellect of 
Christ in glory; for ours shall be like his. Even 
on earth he could read the hearts of men, and knew 
the secrets of nature — how much more in heaven ? 
His senses and faculties are able to observe all the 
objects and niQvements of universal nature at once. 



92 



THE PARABLE 



It must be so, for the Mediator governs the uni- 
verse. He does it through the human nature. 
Consequently, that body and soul, as agent or in- 
strument of the divine person, sees, knows and 
governs all* He sees, i. e.y knows all things at a 
single glance, and attends to all things at once 
without distraction, cessation, confusion or fatigue. 
He knows all fact, all entity, intuitively, without 
those tedious, circuitous and laborious processes 
necessary to our acquisition of knoweledge here. 
And in this too, '^we shall be like him.'' In 
heaven, we shall no longer know in part and see 
through a glass darkly; but we shall see, even as 
we are seen, and know as we are known ; for it is 
thus the humanity of Christ sees and knows. There 
his memory, recollection and imagination are per- 
fect and inconceivably exalted and active. Every 
image, perception and sensation of all the past are 
with the ease of spontaneity reproduced, at will, 
every moment. And in this also **we shall be like 
him.'' Thus we shall continually live the past over 
again. All its beauty, grandeur and joy, contin- 
ually present, shall tower and shine and thrill for- 
ever, and shall be forever swelled and modified by 
new experiences. The ever-active, ever-unwearied 
senses and faculties, to all the glory and beatifica- 
tion of the past, shall add fresh stores, advancing 
us from glory to glory always. Thus shall the hap- 
piness of the redeemed increase evermore, widen- 

^'* We dissent. We think it is only as God, not as man, thut 
Christ knows and governs all things. Mark xiii. 32. — Ed. 



OF THE TARES AND THE WHEAT g^ 

ing and deepening, as it flows like a mighty crystal 
river through the eternal landscapes of heaven. 

Nor must we lose sight of the emotional nature. 
All our desires, aims, aspirations and affections shall 
be perfectly pure and holy, as God is holy. All 
shall aspire after God and rest in him, as in an 
ocean of infinite fullness. They shall never stray 
from him any more. They shall never again for- 
sake the Fountain of living waters, and turn aside 
to broken cisterns, but freed from the distractions 
and degradations and conflicts of sin, and from all 
its fitful and feverish and destructive perturbations, 
they shall calmly dwell fast by the flowing fountains 
of God's loving fullness and drink of the rivers of 
his pleasure through all eternity. Every one of the 
affections, like the physical and intellectual powers, 
shall be immeasurably developed and made more 
keenly susceptibly. They shall be capable of con- 
stant and the highest activity, without exhaustion, 
or satiety, or weariness. All their activities shall be 
eternally nourishing and refreshing. 

4. In fine, put all these things together — the glori- 
fied body and soul and spirit — every member, power 
and susceptibility glorified — all in full, highest and 
harmonious activity — all adoring, worshiping and 
serving — all drinking of the rivers of the pleasures 
that are at God's right hand for evermore. As all 
the bodily senses and all the intellectual powers of 
the redeemed in the paradise of God, among the 
innumerable company of angels, in the General 
Assembly and Church of the First-born, and in the 
presence of the Lamb who is in the midst of the 



94 



THE PARABLE 



throne, are continually beholding and experiencing 
new beauties and glories; so the sanctified emo- 
tions, undistracted, unwearied, unsated and all in 
the full tide and flush of glorified activity, shall ever 
thrill with corresponding raptures. And as the 
whole sum of truth and beauty and good, as per- 
ceived by the soul, is forever and ever increasing, 
so shall its emotions have a deeper and a grander 
flow— a sweeter, loftier, wider, deeper thrill of ex- 
quisite, ineffable ecstasy to endless ages. 

But who can sum up or conceive the results of all 
this continual accretion of glory and joy, as the 
mighty river rolls on and ever, wider and deeper, 
adown the landscapes of an unending heaven? Truly, 
truly, it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor heart conceived the 
things which God hath in store for them that love 
him. The most we can say of it is that it is unut- 
terable. The best idea we can have of it is that it 
is inconceivable. Truly, we shall be satisfied, when 
we awake with God's likeness. 

Sinners, this is all within your reach. 

Professors, make your calling and election sure. 

Tempted, struggling saints,, press forward. 

Afflicted believers, be patient. 

Aged, sick, dying believers, rejoice in the pros- 
pect of death. 

Bereaved Christians, sorrow not as those who 
have no hope. 

Toiling servants in the vineyard, a glorious re- 
compense awaits you. 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED. 



95 



SERMON IV. 
The Parable of the Mustard Seed. 

MATTHEW XIII. 3 1, 32. 



We need not detain to consider what kind of 
plant is here designated, or why the proverbial form 
of expression that the mustard seed is the least of 
all seeds is employed. I hasten to speak of the 
lesson which the parable teaches, even this : first, 
that the Christian religion and Church, though small 
and insignificant in the beginning as a grain of mus- 
tard, should continue to grow and increase, until 
they should be the mightiest and the greatest 
among the influences and institutions of the earth ; 
and, second, that they should be beneficent in char- 
acter and result, furnishing rest, protection and 
nourishment, physical, intellectual and moral, for 
all earth's population. 

I. The mustard seed growing into a great tree 
represents the Christian religion and Church, They 
were indeed at the beginning small and unpromis- 
ing, contemptibly so, viewed according^ to outward 
appearance and with human judgment. 



96 



THE PARABLE 



1. The Founder was an inhabitant of one of the 
smallest, most remote, and most despised prov- 
inces of the Roman Empire. He was of a weak, 
poor, proud, narrow-minded, exclusive, unsocial 
and hated people. And among that people, his 
family was poor, and low in the social and political 
scale. There he lies, the Babe of Bethlehem, 
wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a man- 
ger. For thirty years he lives in the bosom of his 
obscure family, unknown to all but a few, and work- 
ing as a carpenter to support himself and his wid- 
owed mother, in a little country village, poor and 
of ill repute. For three years he travels, preaches 
a new doctrine, gathers a band of twelve apostles 
and a few hundred obscure followers, mostly women, 
as far as appears; and then rejected with indigna- 
tion by his countrymen, he is crucified between two 
thieves, dies a felon's death, betrayed by one apos- 
tle, forsaken by all, amid almost universal execra- 
tion and reproach, being publicly owned among 
men only by an expiring felon. Immediately eleven 
apostles — obscure, illiterate men, tax-gatherers and 
fishermen — and a few scores of others like them, re- 
organize, publish the new doctrine, and institute the 
new Church, amid the derision and execration of 
their neighbors, and utterly unknown to the world 
abroad. 

2. Could anything be more insignificant in its 
beginning, or less auspicious of great and lasting 
results ? Yet the text declares that the new doc- 
trine and organization are the commencement of 
**the kingdom of heaven" on earth, and that it 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED. 97 

shall overtop all kingdoms in its grandeur, extend- 
ing more widely, lasting longer, and immeasurably- 
overshadowing them all in the long and mighty 
sweep of its beneficent influences. Of this feeble 
and contemptible organization, the outward embodi- 
ment of this hated and so-called new religion, our 
text predicts that it shall never be overthrown or 
dissolved, but that it shall live, and, like the mus- 
tard plant among herbs, grow and tower above all 
worldly philosophies and kingdoms and organiza- 
tions, and fill all the world with the might and mag- 
nificence of its healing and health-giving power. 

3. Nor is the text solitary in this prediction. 
Many other passages of Scripture, uttered by a 
long line of prophets, through many hundreds of 
years, foretell in varied language the same thing. 
Genesis xxii. 18. Psalm ii. 8. Psalm Ixxii. 8-1 1. 
Isaiah ii. 1-4. Isaiah Ix. 1-14. Daniel ii. 44, 55. 
Zechariah xiv. 7-21. Such are a sample of the 
numerous predictions, everywhere contained in the 
Scriptures, concerning the future greatness and 
glory of the religion and Church of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. And all this, notwithstanding the prophets 
foresaw and foretold the great and deadly opposi- 
tion which they would have to encounter from the 
malice of Satan, from the hatred of a fallen world, 
and from the corrupt doctrines, hearts and lives 
of large bodies of pretended friends. 

4. Now an appeal to history and to the present 
and prospective condition of the Christian religion 
and Church will sustain and demonstrate the truth 
of all that the prophetic Scriptures have uttered. 

9 



98 



THE PARABLE 



On the morning of Pentecost, the Spirit was shed 
forth, the Httle Church in Jerusalem, comprising 
one hundred and twenty persons in all, was endued 
with power from on high, and soon myriads of the 
Jews believed,"^ and probably a still larger number 
of the heathen. To say nothing of the results 
which crowned the labors of the eleven apostles and 
of the evangelists and preachers, and of their con- 
verts, whom persecution scattered all abroad, preach- 
ing and teaching the gospel of the kingdom unto 
all, God working in them and with them, and con- 
firming the word with signs following; Paul alone 
successfully preached, and organized churches all 
over the Roman Empire and beyond it — from Ara- 
bia to the pillars of Hercules ; so that we need 
only speak of what God wrought by him, in mak- 
ing the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, 
through mighty signs and wonders, by the power 
of the Spirit of God, in order to obtain a large 
view of the early and rapid extension of the king- 
dom of heaven on earth. Before one generation of 
men had passed away, after Pentecost, the vigorous 
plant had spread abroad its joots and sent out its 
jbrai:jches over the three known divisions of the 
world — Asia, Africa and Europe. For three hun- 
dred years, the Great Red Dragon, with the Roman 
Empire as his battle-ax, attempted its demolition ; 
-and ten bloody persecutions ended in its complete 
establishment. So the tall oak, that beetles on the 
mountain's brow, has oft withstood the fierce winds 
and storms that assailed it, and tossed abroad its 

'=• Acts xxi. 20. 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED. gg 

Stalwart arms with a bolder and a hardier defiance 
than before. 

All the physical and moral forces of earth and 
hell opposed that kingdom that cometh not with 
observation; but in vain. Her strange soldiery- 
triumphed even through defeat, and even dying 
conquered ; and until the present hour, a bush 
burning, but unconsumed, she lives and grows 
and conquers. I can not stay to detail the facts 
of her history through these long, weary centuries 
of conflict, oppression and conquest, of tears and 
groans, and blood and triumph, which have passed 
over hen I can not stay to tell how, with vital 
powers victorious, she lived (but not wholly un- 
smitten) through that moral malaria and mael- 
strom of vice and ungodliness, in the sirocco breath 
of which the ancient civilization perished. Nor 
have we time to tell how she remained unbroken 
amid the fierce and fearful convulsions which shook 
the old iron empire of Rome to pieces— how, 
stronger than Alaric and his Goths, hardier than 
Attila and his Huns, mightier than Genseric and his 
Vandals, were the meek, unhelmeted, ungreaved, 
ungirded soldiery of the great Captain of our salva- 
tion; and how those fierce, reckless, scornful sons 
of blood and darkness came to bow down in meek 
submission. Nor may I detain to tell of that hor- 
rible smoke of the bottomless pit (which even yet 
darkens the Oriental sky) ; nor of the Saracenic 
(Mohammedan) locusts which came out of it, 
whose king was ** Destroyer, " and who, for a hun- 
dred and fifty weary years of blood and fire, *'had 



100 ^^^ PARABLE 

power, as the scorpions of the earth have power;*'* 
nor of the 'Moosing of the four ai7gels, bound in 
the great river Euphrates ** (the four Turkish sul- 
tanies), whose breastplates were of fire and jacinth 
and brimstone, whose horses* heads were as the 
heads of lions, from whose mouths there issued 
fire and smoke and brimstone, whose number was 
twice ten thousand times ten thousand, and who 
for an hour and a day and a month and a year 
(three hundred and ninty-one years) had power 
to torment those who dwell on the earth ;f nor 
of the rise and reign of the great western Anti- 
christ, the man of sin and son of perdition, the 
Pope of Rome, with his menial priestlings, who 
for well-nigh these twelve hundred and sixty years 
has ceased not to oppose, to persecute and to 
wear out the saints of the Most High, and to 
make himself and all about him drunk with the 
blood of the martyrs of Jesus. J Nay, I may not in 
this particular manner, even name the chief of the 
great struggles of the Church of God, in ancient, 
medieval and modern ages. It would take days 
and months to trace down the valleys of ages the 
footsteps of the noble army of the martyrs, who 
have, in every age, rallied around Christ's crown 
and covenant, and doing battle nobly for truth and 
righteousness have fallen where they fought. Earth 
has hardly a country and hardly a cavern which has 
not heard their confession and witnessed their fidel- 



*' Revelation ix. 3. t Revelation ix. 13-17 
X 2 Thessalonians ii. 3. Revelation xvii. 7. 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED. 10 1 

ity. There is hardly a hill or hillock which has not 
been red with their blood. 

Often has the enemy prematurely boasted a tri- 
umph. Often, when seeming reverse and disaster 
came upon Zion, has he exultantly exclaimed 
*'Aha! we would have it thus.** Often have they 
been certain of success, as, for example the French 
madmen^ but as often have their plans been 
thwarted and their hopes blighted. He who sits 
in heaven laughed. Jehovah had them in derision. 
He spake to them in his wrath and vexed them in 
his sore displeasure. Yea, even to this hour the 
song of Zion is, ** Blessed be the Lord, who hath 
not given us as a prey to their teeth . . . The Lord 
shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all 
generations.*^'* 

These enemies of Zion, after all their boastful 
and assured anticipations of triumph, during these 
last eighteen centuries, have perished ; but she still 
lives. They are dead, and she writes their epitaph. 
The nations, kingdoms and empires, the tongues, 
tribes and organizations, the philosophies, theol- 
ogies and sciences (falsely so-called), that have op- 
posed her, are extinct, but she flourishes in the 
bloom of immortal youth and beauty. That against 
which they warred — the kingdom of heaven — immu- 
table amidst change, indestructible amid ruin, the 
last, living monument of departed ages, the sole 
subsisting link to connect us with the age before 
the flood, is still, with all the undiminished and 
fresh vigor of youth and hope, extending her bound- 

'=• Psalm cxxiv. 6 ; cxlvi. lo. 



102 THE PARABLE 

aries and increasing her power. Amid all earth's 
institutions and activities, like the Sinapi (mustard) 
among plants, she is towering upward and spreading 
abroad her boughs to the sunshine and the breeze, 
overtopping and overshadowing all the kingdoms 
of the earth and all the powers of evil. Already, . 
at least, a nominal Christianity (and much of it vital 
and real) covers the western hemisphere, from the 
Arctic to the Antarctic Ocean. The banner of Him, 
who is the only Holy One in the midst of Israel, 
floats over all its continents and islands, proclaiming 
Him to be higher than the kings of the earth. The 
myriad islands of the vast Pacific, everywhere 
through her wide waste of waters, are by ones and 
twos, and scores and hundreds, subscribing with the 
hand and calling themselves by the name of Israel. 
The fires of our temple-altars are rekindling on the 
hills of Palestine, and from the Hellespont to the 
Persian Gulf. India, in a transition state, is renounc- 
ing her caste, her gods and her abominations ; and 
the tree of life promises erelong to cover, with its 
shadowing branches, the land of the myrtle and the 
vine. The Chinese Wall is falhng, and ''the Flow- 
ery Kingdom'' is opening to receive the Bible and 
the missionary; and the first-fruits of the coming 
harvest are already gathered from among those hun- 
dreds of millions of perishing immortals. Australia 
is wheeling into the ranks of the ransomed. Africa 
is almost literally stretching out her hands to God, 
and ringing in our ears the Macedonian cry, ''Come 
over and help us." The living waters of the silvery 
Silva are beginning to flow softly and sweetly 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED. 103 

through her plains, and her sunburnt sons are be- 
ginning to drink and Hve. Erelong those <rivuleta 
shall swell into rivers of the water of life, and her 
Great Sahara shall be glad for them, and all her 
deserts shall blossom as the rose. 

Thus far history has verified the prophecy of the 
text, and it will y^gfe fulfill it more and more. Al- 
ready the mountain of the Lord's house has been 
established in the top of the mountains and exalted 
above the hills; and erelong all nations shall flow 
unto it, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge 
of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the 
sea. '^ The ends of the earth shall remember and 
turn unto the Lord, and the kingdoms of the nations 
shall do homage unto him.f 

IL But the text, viewed in the light of other 
prophecies, predicts not only the universal exten- 
sion of the Christian religion and Church, it foretells 
also that they shall exert a beneficent influence. 
As the full-grown mustard-tree offers rest, shelter 
and food for all the birds of heaven, lodging in its 
branches, so the influence of the Church shall be to 
the sons of men. The same figure is used by Eze- 
kiel in reference to the same subject: ''Thus saith 
the Lord God ; I will also take of the highest branch 
of the high cedar and will set it; I will crop off from 
the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will 
plant it upon a high mountain and eminent : In the 
mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it-; and 
it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and'^be a 
goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of 

* Micah iv. i. Habukkiik ii. 14. t Psalm xxii. 27. 



104 



THE PARABLE 



every wing ; in the shadow of the branches thereof 
shall they dwell."* 

The same figure is employed also in Ezekiel xxxi, 
1-9, and in Daniel iv. 12. By comparing these 
passages with the text, we are taught that the salu- 
tary influence which ** the kingdom of heaven'' shall 
exert upon the affairs of men shall be very great. 
And facts verify this prediction. Is it not so ? Do 
you doubt it? 

Note then some of the influences for good which 
she exerts upon man's temporal and earthly well- 
being — his earthly well-being I say; for we speak 
not now of her work as it affects his state beyond 
the grave. We speak not of man's redemption 
from eternal ruin and of his restoration to the favor, 
the family and the fellowship of God, in a bright, 
eternal heaven. We refer not now to the good news 
of justice satisfied and the law magnified for us ; nor 
to the works of the devil destroyed, his prisoners 
delivered, death abolished, and life and immortality 
brought to light, and enjoyed in the Elysian beyond 
the river ; nor to the heavenly paradise with its tree 
of life and river of life ; nor. to the bride-like city, 
with its pearly gates and golden streets, its cloud- 
less rosy skies, and deathless, blessed life ; nor to its 
robes of light and crowns of gold and sounding 
lyres, resounding far abroad, those ceaseless sym- 
phonies of joy which roll aloft, in ever grander 
anthem swell, the transports of heaven's teeming 
and triumphing population. Let all these pass. 
For them we have neither time nor tongue. They 

* Ezekiel xvii. 22, 23. 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED, 105 

are themes for spirit-tongues through the eternal 
ages. Oh, the length and the breadth and the depth 
and the height of the love of Christ for the sons of 
men ! But our theme is a humbler one. We speak 
only of the work of Christianity as it stands related 
to man's temporal and earthly welfare. And see ! 

1. She teaches men how to live and how to die. 
She is a light to his feet and a lamp to his path in 
his pilgrimage journey. She furnishes him with 
adequate motives to shun the wrong and pursue the 
right. 

2. She has brought not only a new light into the 
world, but also a new life, which, as it spreads and 
develops among men, transforming and renewing 
the whole face of the world, changes man's heart 
and all human institutions and interests. Is it not 
so? Listen. Monogamy, the Christian family, 
civil and religious liberty, liberty of thought and 
action, liberty of speech and of the press, and lib- 
erty to worship God according to the dictates of a 
conscience enlightened from above and none to 
interfere ; and, in one word, all that is good in mod- 
ern Christian civilization are among the fruits of her 
hands. Opposed, hated, thwarted and impeded as 
she always has been by human perversity and 
Satanic malignity, it. is nevertheless not to be denied 
that even in the partial influence she has been per- 
mitted to exert, she has well-nigh made a heaven 
of purity and joy in many a human bosom, and an 
Eden of bloom and of bliss in many a bleak and 
barren land. Souls regenerated and disenthralled ; 
victims rescued from the maelstrom of vice; unholy 



I06 THE PARABLE 

appetites and passions subdued ; selfishness trans- 
formed to love ; every holy and excellent disposi- 
tion nourished and developed — love, joy, peace, 
long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, goodness, 
truth, temperance, patience, humility, fortitude, 
courage, purity, integrity, godliness and spiritual- 
ity, in one word, all the virtues, tempers and dis- 
positions which purify, adorn and bless the hearts 
and homes and lives of men, does Christianity, by 
her doctrines, precepts, institutions and quickening 
Spirit, implant, foster and develop into fullness and 
completion ! 

And, lo, what blessed results ! Descended daugh- 
ter of heaven, she walks abroad in the sheen of her 
queenly beauty, among the barbarous, wretched 
tribes of earth, and life and health and purity and 
joy attend her footsteps. She comes to the reek- 
ing abodes of squalor, ignorance and sin, and as 
far and as fast as the wretched inmates yield to her 
influence, they are transformed by her more than 
magical influence. The thief is taught to steal no 
more. The sensual become temperate, sober and 
pure. The fierce and cruel are tamed and softened, 
and become loving and kind. 

She comes to the abodes— it may be — to the 
sple7tdid dihod^s oi disappointment and sorrow, to 
hearts hungry, bereaved and desolate, whose 
blighted loves and hopes are moss-grown and 
decayed, and teaches them to throb with a new 
hope, to leap with a new life, and to bound exult- 
ingly with a new, grand and deathless joy. 

She comes to the bedside of the dying, and as 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED. 



107 



the last, leaping life-blood chills and curdles at the 
heart, she fills and flushes all with the warm genial 
currents of the life immortal. When the last flame 
of life flickers dimly in its oilless socket, and gleams 
and glimmers onward into darkness ; when sunken 
eye-balls glaze in death, and friends and home and 
earth recede from view, and rayless darkness en- 
velops all ; then, oh then, she fills and floods the 
soul with tides of living glories, fresh from the 
throne of God. 

Such is something, and only something, of her 
renewing and transforming influences upon man, 
individually teaching him how to live and how to 
die. 

3. Equally benign is her influence upon the social 
man. She goes abroad among earth's peoples ; and, 
barbarous hordes and cannibal and savage tribes 
are taken from the depths of an ineffable degrada- 
tion and distress, and are transformed into great 
and flourishing states. The deep ignorance, the 
fierce disposition, the thriftless and filthy habits 
which disgrace their manhood, the gloomy and 
deadly superstitions which had enslaved and tor- 
tured them, benumbing the intellect and besotting 
the spirit, and the holocausts and hecatombs of 
beastly and of human victims offered in sacrifice to 
their dismal deities, and all the dreary orgies of 
their inner temples, disappear at her coming, as 
flits the ill-omened bird of night before the golden 
arrows of the morning. 

Already has she divested demon war of many 
of its atrocities, greatly diminished the war spirit 



I08 THE PARABLE 

and the lust of military conquest and glory ; the 
rage and carnage and havoc of war extensively 
giving place to the milder rivalries of peaceful art 
and industry. And the time approaches, when, 
under her influence, wars shall cease to the ends 
of the earth; when the war-horse shall no longer 
paw in the valley and swallow the ground in the 
fierceness of his rage, as he scents the battle from 
afar, the thunder of the captains and the shouting ; 
when men shall beat their swords into plowshares 
and their spears into pruning-hooks ; when nation 
shall not lift up sword against nation, nor learn war 
any more. 

Nor are these the only witnesses to the splendid 
fruits of Christianity. The neglect and even the 
murder of the aged, the sick, the feeble, the depend- 
ent and helpless, and even of unborn babes, she has 
arrested or is arresting, and with Briarean arms is 
erecting institutions for their support and educa- 
tion. Hospitals, alms-houses, asylums, schools, 
churches and temples of justice, at the wave of 
her wonder-working wand, spring up far and near. 

Polygamy and domestic impurity, tyranny and 
misery, much as they still abound in all lands, are, 
under her influence, widely giving place to that 
finest type and prophecy of heaven, the Christian 
home. 

Chains and handcuffs are being wrenched from 
the limbs of the oppressed, and civil, political and 
religious liberty spreads and flourishes. 

Woman, no longer a slave, a beast of burden, a 
thing, but the counterpart, complement and com- 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED. ioq 

panion of man, is more and more rising to her true 
and rightful position. 

Man is taught his individuaHty and responsibility, 
his divine origin, immense capabilities and eternal 
destiny, his rights, his dignity and his duty. In 
schools and churches, and other institutions, pro- 
vision is made for the education of head and heart, 
of mind and member. 

As a consequence of all this, new life and virtue 
are being infused into the vast masses of humanity ; 
all human thought and enterprise are replenished 
and refreshed in all their thousand fountains ; and 
society is rapidly developing and efflorescing into 
that wonderful, complex and constantly developing 
thing called ^ * modern Christian civilization " — a 
thing yet in its nascency, but destined to grow up 
into a glorious development under the fostering 
influence of the religion of Jesus Christ. 

That all these things (and many such there be) 
are .the legitimate and the actual fruits of Chris- 
tianity is manifest, because, when taken as a whole: 

(i.) She and she only fosters them by her doc- 
trines, precepts, institutions and influence. Else 
why are they not fostered in countries beyond the 
pale of her influence? 

(2.) They are found in a greater or less degree 
onfy^ always^ and in all places, where the religion of 
the Bible is found, and the degree of their develop- 
ment in any given case is measured by the length 
of time in which Christianity has had to operate, 
the degree of purity in which she has subsisted and 
put forth her energies, her freedom from the con- 



1 10 THE PARABLE 

taminating doctrines and commandments of men ; 
and in proportion to the favorableness of the cir- 
cumstances in which she has been placed in each 
case. 

(3.) She alone has furnished or can furnish the 
■truths, the precepts and the motives which are 
essential to these results. 

(4.) Finally, through her, and her alone, Jesus 
Christ, by the Holy Spirit, exerts a quickening and 
transforming power on the hearts and the lives of 
men. Regeneration and sanctification are in a cer- 
tain sense her work. She is, has been, and shall be 
the light of the world and the salt of the earth. It 
is not by any inherent and self-originating power of 
development that the civilization of Christendom 
has been advanced to its present stage, but by the 
power of the Holy Spirit of that great and gracious 
God, who has given unto his Son the heathen for 
his inheritance and the uttermost part of the earth 
for his possession. 

CONCLUSION. 

The prophecies of Scripture, as compared with 
their historic fulfillment, furnish a demonstration 
of the inspiration of the Holy Bible. I can not 
pretend to handle and develop this argument in the 
conclusion of a sermon ; but I can not close with- 
out expressing unfeigned surprise and astonishment 
that any intelligent and immortal soul should be 
content to live without investigating it. And sure 
I am that no man can candidly and thoroughly 
examine, without finding that it not only demands, 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED. 1 1 1 

but compels his faith in the divine origin and author- 
ity of the book we call the Word of God. 

Prophecies, such as the Scriptures contain, if 
verified in history, necessarily imply inspiration 
from God; because they demonstrate the possession 
of a foresight impossible not only to man, but to 
any creature however great or wise. No man can 
foretell the future with certainty. No man can 
infallibly declare what shall be on the morrow, or 
in the next hour, and say whether he shall be sick 
or well, living or dead. No man can tell what new 
invention or discoveries shall in the next thousand 
years revolutionize the whole force of society ; nor 
what will be the course of trade, or where the com^ 
mercial emporium of the world ; nor what wars and 
revolutions will take place ; nor what rising will be 
of new empires or decay of the old. To predict, 
in a general way, that some great discovery shall 
be made, some great man live, some great empire 
arise, some great events occur, were an easy task, 
and certain of success. But to utter the prediction 
with minute details as to time, place and other cir- 
cumstances, as the Scriptures do, is a very differ- 
ent thing, and. to do it truthfully requires inspiration 
of God. For example, if I and hundreds of other 
men, during the last four thousand years, acknowl- 
edging our ignorance, but claiming that we spake 
under the influence of the Holy Spirit, had uttered 
such predictions of some future great man, as all 
the prophets, for four thousand years, uttered con- 
cerning the coming, the person and the work of 
the Messiah ; and if for tliousands of years together 



112 THE PARABLE 

these predictions had been fulfilled ; and if you had 
lived all these millenniums to hear the predictions 
and witness their fulfillment; then, such is the con- 
stitution of human nature, that you could not but 
believe that '*holy men of God spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost/'* 

Our text is not a solitary utterance, standing 
alone, on the sacred page, but a masterly and inim- 
itable summary of a thousand prophecies uttered by 
holy men in the preceding centuries — the substance 
of a vast chain and system of prophecies concern- 
ing Christ and his kingdom. And yet for these 
eighteen centuries and more, event after event, link 
after link, in that vast chain and bgdy of prophecy, 
have fallen out just as they were foretold. There 
has been, in thrice ten thousand particulars, a ful- 
fillment of events, just as they were predicted, and 
not one failure. And so it has been with many 
other bodies of prophecy contained in Scripture, 
beside those referring to Christ ; for instance, those 
referring to the three sons of Noah, the two sons 
of Abraham, the two sons of Lot, the two sons of 
Isaac, to David, to Egypt, and each of the various 
countries surrounding the Holy Land, as Edom, 
Moab, Syria, Assyria, Nineveh, Tyre, Babylon and 
Rome. A compend of the history of all these 
countries and cities was written in the Bible hund- 
reds or thousands of years before it was verified — 
verified not only in the general outlines, but in the 
particular and circumstantial details of time, place, 
cause, manner, agent, instrument, and result. Age 

*" 2 Peter i. 21. 



OF THE MUSTARD SEED, nj 

after age, century after century, witness the fulfill- 
ment of whole systems of prophecy — predictions 
not of things likely to happen in the ordinary 
course ; but of the most unheard of and the most 
' unlikely things ; of things not only improbable, 
but at the time apparently impossible; and. yet 
all either have been fulfilled or are fulfilling. '^Not 
one jot or tittle of all that the prophets have spoken 
has fallen to the ground. 

As an illustration, take that body of prophecies, 
of which our text is a summary, uttered by proph- 
ets of most diverse character, education, race, agq^ 
and condition. They all foretell a Messiah should 
arise; that he should be of the seed of Abraham.,, 
of the tribe of Judah, of the house of David, born 
of a poor family, of a virgin mother, four hundred 
and ninety years after the decree of the Babylonish 
monarch to rebuild Jerusalem. They foretold the 
circumstances of his life and death, and of the 
awful retributions of Providence — lasting throu^ 
many centuries — on his betrayers and murderers., 
They tell us that he would establish *'the king- 
dom of heaven" in the world; that his Church and 
religion should be small at first, but that it should 
not perish, nor be subverted ; that in the midse? 
of constant opposition and strife from within and 
without, it should increase in extent and influence, 
until it should fill and subdue the world ; that the 
constitution and polity of the Christian people, and 
their doctrines, precepts and manner of life, should 
be different from those of all other peoples and 
should be hated by them; that they should itieet 

lO 



114 THE PARABLE 

the combined, concentrated and constant opposi- 
tion of earth and hell ; that those who killed them 
would think they did God service ; and yet that 
constant progress and universal triumph awaited 
them. Remarkable prediction ! Wonderful fulfill- 
ment! 

Twelve poor, obscure, illiterate men, members 
of a hated race, set out to revolutionize the doc- 
trines and laws, the manners and habits, the insti- 
tutions and customs, of the world! From the 
beginning they encounter the derision and detes- 
tation and violent persecution of all. All the 
fanatic energy of the Jewish people, all the iron 
power of the Roman Empire, is against them. 
Friends, relations, neighbors and fellow citizens; 
poets and orators and philosophers ; priests and 
people ; courts, camps and armies — all are com- 
bined in an indefatigable and violent attempt to 
put them down. It was a contest without retreat, 
truce, pause or compromise. And yet these poor 
men were not overcome. Their little ' organization 
was not put down. They overcame by the word 
of their testimony and by the blood of the Lamb. 
The Church lived and lives; it flourished and flour- 
ishes. Strange prediction ! Marvelous fulfillment! 
Who ^can look at this single section of prophecy, 
and not feel in his inmost soul that **the testimony 
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy?'' 



OF THE LEAVEN. 1 1 5 



SERMON V. 
The Parable of the Leayen. 



MATTHEW XIII. 33. 
{First Sermon.) 



The parable of the mustard-seed represents the 
outward growth of the heavenly kingdom ; the par- 
able of the leaven represents its inward life and 
power. The one pictures the effect, the other the 
cause. The kingdom of heaven, small as a grain 
of mustard-seed in its beginnings, and great as the 
mustard-tree among herbs at last, becomes so by 
the indomitable principle of spiritual Hfe — which 
principle of life, by a change of figure, is likened 
in our text to leaven. As leaven by its penetrating 
power permeates the meal and assimilates the whole 
to itself by imparting to it its own properties ; so 
the kingdom of heaven, whether it sets up its power 
in the individual soul or in the world, will work and 
continue to work until it shall have subdued all 
things unto itself. 

I. ''Leaven,'' in our text> is to be understood as 
representing, (ist) the new divine life infused into 



1 16 THE PARABLE 

the soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, through 
the instrumentality of the word; (2d) the same 
life or vital powxr, infused by the same Spirit, 
through the same instrumentality, into the world. 
And the affirmation is, that wherever this new life or 
vital power is infused, working gradually, silently 
and invisibly, it will certainly, at length, permeate 
the whole mass and assimilate it unto itself. 

11. *^The three measures of meal," in which the 
woman hid the leaven, were probably the usual 
amount or about the usual amount of cereal used 
at one time, in preparing the family loaves, and are 
probably adduced merely to complete the imagery 
of the parable, without having any particular sig- 
nification. But if a particular signification be insisted 
on, I know not well what can be intended unless it 
be the tripartite nature of man, soul, spirit and 
body, or the soul alone viewed as including the 
intellect, the emotions and the will — all of which, 
man in his tripartite nature, the soul in its threefold 
division, are assimilated by the operations of the 
Holy Spirit. 

HI. I know that leaven is often, perhaps gener- 
ally in the Sacred Scriptures, used as an emblem of 
something corrupt and corrupting. Yet this does 
not prevent its being used in a good sense also. 
Thus our Savior and Satan are both compared to a 
lion, but in very different senses. And the Church, 
in both her best and her worst state, is compared to 
a woman, and this with the greatest force and fit- 
ness. For nothing on earth is more lovely than a 
chaste, pure, good woman, and therefore she is the 



OF THE LEA VEK 



117 



fit emblem of a pure and beneficent Church. But 
nothing is more unlovely and loathsome than an 
unchaste, abandoned woman, and hence such a one 
is the fit emblem of a Church that has apostatized — 
forsaken the guide of her youth and broken the 
.covenant of her God. So it is here. Leaven, be- 
cause of its corrupt nature and corrupting tendency, 
is a fit emblem of impure doctrine and unholy ex- 
ample.** But because of its warmth, pungency, 
penetrating power and capacity of assimilating to 
itself every thing that it permeates, it is a beautiful 
emblem of that new nature, that new vital power 
infused into the soul in regeneration. Still further 
is the emblem suitable, because the new life infused 
by the Holy Spirit into the new-born soul, like 
leaven, works on silently, secretly, continually and 
effectually until the whole man is sanctified. 

We will consider the text in its application, 1st, 
to the individual man; and, 2d, to society — the 
kingdom of heaven in its influences, ist, upon the 
body, soul and spirit; and, 2d, upon the family, 
Church and State. 

L The text in its application to individuals ^ the 
kingdom of heaven in its influences upon the body^ soid 
and spirit of the individual man. And, 

I. I remark that the kingdom of heaven is com- 
menced in the soul, by the infusion into it of a new 
principle of heavenly life. The ** new creature" in 
Christ Jesus is something more than a mere out- 
ward reformation ; something more than the aban- 
donment of gross sins and vices; something more 

* Matthew xvi. 6, 12. i Corinthians v. 6-8. 



Il8 THE PARABLE 

than the practice of outward duties, or the cultiva- 
tion of human virtues. It is also something more 
than the change of one's religious principles, or the 
observance of certain forms and ceremonies. It is 
the infusion of a new and divine life into the soul. 
This the Bible plainly teaches. It is a truth which* 
is assumed or affirmed in a thousand places and 
taught in a hundred different ways. 

(i.) It is implied in all those passages which 
speak of man's natural state as a state of death, 
and of his spiritual state as a state of life. Ephe- 
sians ii. i-6. 

(2.) The infusion of a principle of divine life into 
the soul is taught in all those passages which affirm 
the necessity of the renewal of the soul in order 
that it may serve God and bring forth the fruits of 
holiness. Matthew vii. 17, 18; xii. 33-35. 

(3.) The same doctrine is implied in all those pas- 
sages which affirm man's heart and nature to be 
wholly corrupt and impotent to good, and incapable 
of self-renovation. Genesis vi. 5. Ephesians ii. 3; 
IV. 17, 18. Jeremiah xiii. 23 ; xvii. 19. Romans i. 
28-31, 

(4. ) The doctrme is more directly taught in all 
those passages which describe the work of God 
upon the soul. That work is described in various 
ways ; for example, as 

A quickening or as a resurrection from the dead. 
Ephesians ii. 5, 6. 

A circumcising of the heart. Romans ii. 29. 
PhiHppians iii. 3. 

A new heart. Ezekiel xxxvi. 26. 



I 



OF THE LEA VEN. 1 1 g 

A new man. Colossians iii. lo. Ephesiansiv. 24. 

A new creature or new creation. 2 Corinthians 
V. 17. 

Many other figures and representations are em- 
ployed to describe God's work in the soul, all of 
which clearly imply the implantation of a new and 
spiritual principle. 

2. This new principle of spiritual life is infused 
into the soul by the operation of the Holy Spirit. 
The new birth is attributed to the Holy Spirit. 
John iii. 5, 8. Believers are declared to live in the 
Spirit, to walk after the Spirit, to have the Spirit 
dwelling within them, to be temples of the Spirit. 
All gifts and graces, all good in the soul, are 
declared to be from the Spirit. Galatians v. 16-23. 
Ephesians v. 9. 

Thus it is the Holy Spirit by whom the leaven 
of life is infused into the heart. It is he who com- 
mences, carries on and completes the work of grace 
in the souls of believers ; who convinces of sin and 
misery, enlightens the mind in the knowledge of 
Christ, persuades and enables the soul to embrace 
Christ for salvation ; who renovates the soul into 
the image of God, subdues us entirely to him, puri- 
fies the heart more and more, and prepares us for 
heaven. O thou holy and dove-like Spirit, descend 
into our souls, make them thy temple, renew them 
in the divine image, powerfully turn us to God, 
mightily build us up in holiness, and fit us for 
heaven. And may we all and speedily become a 
habitation of God through the Spirit. 

Behold what strong grounds of hope and conso- 



120 THE PARABLE 

lation God gives to those who seek him. Does the 
guilt of numerous and aggravated transgressions 
arise to terrify the conscience and sink dying hope 
in the black gulf of despair? Jesus washes all the 
stains of the penitent sinner away, makes him clean 
and righteous, and restores him to the favor and 
family of God. Do corruption, wickedness, ungod- 
liness, and all evil passions and appetites fester in 
his soul? The Holy Spirit, who is God Almighty, 
undertakes to purify that soul, and make it a fit 
habitation for God, and a vessel of glory. And 
now, O immortal hearers, are you willing to rely on 
this glorious Jesus and his good Spirit? Do you 
rely on them and choose them as your portion and 
your rest? Then lift up your heads. Give sorrow 
and fears and dark forebodings to the winds ; for 
the day of your redemption draweth nigh. The 
eternal God is thy refuge. The everlasting arms 
are underneath you. The God of peace in his own 
good time and way will sanctify your whole spirit, 
soul and body, by his Spirit which is given unto 
you. And though you walk in the midst of trouble, 
you shall have life from him. Though you be led 
through fire and water, you shall be brought up to 
a wealthy place. Though you lie defiled among the 
pots, you shall yet come forth as the doves whose 
wings are covered with silver and their feathers 
tipped with yellow gold. Yea, nothing is too hard 
for God. He is able by his mighty power to sub- 
due even all things unto himself. When Jesus 
takes it upon him to say: '*I will ; be thou clean/' 
you may be certain that your leprosy shall be 



OF THE LEAVEN, 121 

cleansed. Well might Paul say: ''If God be for 
us, who can be against us ? Who shall separate us 
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or dis- 
tress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or 
peril, or sword? Nay in all these things we are 
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. 
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, 
nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, 
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate 
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus 
our Lord."* 

3. I remark, once more, that the Holy Spirit in- 
fuses this divine and all-conquering principle of life 
into the soul through the instrumentality of the 
inspired w^ord. He uses the truth of the Bible as 
the instrument of the conversion of souls to God, 
and of their sanctification. If he convinces the 
soul of sin and misery, he does it by applying truth 
to the conscience. If he leads a soul to Christ for 
salvation, he does it by the teachings and encour- 
agements of the word. If he conveys strength in 
the hour of weakness, comfort in the time of sor- 
row, or assistance in the hour of battle and danger, 
this also he does by the instrumentality of the 
word. The Savior prayed, ''Sanctify them through 
thy truth: thy word is truth. "f He said, "It is 
the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth noth- 
ing: the words that I spake unto you, they are 
spirit, and they are life."]; 

* Romans viii. 31, 35, 2i^, 39. "f John xvii. 17. 
X John vi. 63. 

II 



122 THE PARABLE 

Truth, inspired truth, known, beheved, remem- 
bered, and appropriated to our souls, is the sword 
in the hand of the Spirit, with w^hich he slays our 
enemies;''' is the bread on which he nourishes and 
strengthens our souls; is the sun, with which he 
irradiates our pathway; the dew, with which he 
refreshes our spirits ; the rain which he distills upon 
his garden ; and the medicine, with which he heals 
the soul. He who is weak in the Scriptures, or 
who knowing them does not make them his daily 
meditation, is a weak Christian— is liable to err in 
a thousand ways, to be pierced with a thousand 
wounds, and to suffer a thousand sorrows. Nor 
does he suffer his people to neglect his word. By 
a thousand voices does he make them hear and 
heed it — by the voice that goes forth from the 
sacred desk from Sabbath to Sabbath ; by the voice 
of Christian friends surrounding us ; by the voice 
of the daily examples, both good and bad, by which 
we are surrounded ; by the great arm of his provi- 
dence upon us and around us, leading us whither 
he will ; by the rod of his chastisements and the 
yoke of his displeasure heavy upon our souls ; by 
the voice of conscience within us — by all these does 
he lead us to his word, and through that word 
understood, believed, appropriated, rested in and 
obeyed, does he quicken the spiritual life within us, 
mortifying our corrupt members, leading us closer 
to God, conforming us more and more unto his 
image, and making us exceedingly glad with his 
countenance. 



* Ephesians vi. 17. 



OF THE LEA VEN. 



123 



4. Let it be carefully noted that this kingdom, 
tills life of God infused by the Holy Spirit into the 
soul, is compared to leaven, because it is only grad- 
ually^ and often by slow degrees, that it diffuses itself 
through the soul, and assimilates it to God, We are 
not to think that the new convert is all at once a 
perfect saint— entirely freed from sin, completed in 
holiness and ripened for heaven. Far from it. In 
the kingdom of grace, as in the kingdom of nature, 
God moves on in his great work step by step. 
When the precious leaven of grace is infused into 
the soul, from that moment the great change is 
begun ; but it is only begun, and much remains to 
be accomplished. From the moment the leaven 
is hid in the meal, it begins to work, but it only 
begins. It is only a little lump compared with the 
mass to be leavened, and perhaps it will be hours 
before the process shall have been completed. 
When the soul is regenerated, it is born again. 
But in the spiritual, as in the natural world, that 
which is born is but an infant at first. This new- 
born infant is perfect in its kind. It has all the 
organs and faculties of the full-grown man, but 
they are immature. It has repentance toward God 
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. It has 
love, joy, peace, long-sufifering, and all other Chris- 
tian graces. It has those principles and instincts 
which impel it to follow after whatsoever things are 
just, true, pure, lovely, honest, and of good report. 
But all these graces and affections are yet in their 
infant, budding state. As the new-born babe has 
the faculties of reason and judgment, but yet can 



124 



THE PARABLE 



hardly use them at all until they grow and mature, 
and in the mean time makes many a hurtful and 
irrational blunder; so it is with the graces of him 
who is born into the kingdom of heaven. As the 
little babe has feet, but can hardly use them at all, 
and at first walks with weak and tottering steps and 
at the risk of many a fall and many a wound ; so it 
is with him who is *'born again" in his assays to 
walk in the ways of holiness. The infant must be 
nourished, clothed and taught, and by slow degrees, 
through many dangers, mistakes and injuries, it 
comes at last to full and perfect manhood. So it is 
with the new convert. He needs to be nourished 
on the sincere milk of the word ; afterward to be 
fed on the strong meat of divine truth ; to be taught 
by precept and example ; to be exercised in the 
life and duties of holiness. Thus the leaven pene- 
trates and spreads, until the whole is leavened. 
This gradual growth of the spiritual principle and 
power in the soul our Savior elsewhere illustrates, 
by comparing it to the growth of corn from the 
seed— ''first the blade, then the ear, after that the 
full corn in the ear." 

Observation i. This point, the gradual growth 
of religion in the soul, is one to which we all need to 
give earnest attention. Many seem to think that 
having obtained conversion, acceptance with God, 
and a place in the visible Church, there is but little 
more to do. They think all is well, if they shall but 
hold on to the religion they have and not lose it. 
Hence many, instead of growing in grace, do little 
more than stand still and hold their own. They pass 



OF THE LEA VEN, 1 2 5 

through life with a low standard of piety. Often 
you can hardly distinguish them from the world. 
They are not increasing, or are increasing but 
slowly, in knowledge and holiness. But the Chris- 
tian should cast his eyes inward, and in the light 
of God's word learn how much is yet to be done in 
his own soul, before he is perfect. He should set 
his mark high. He should aim at perfection — at 
absolute perfection — perfection in knowledge, love 
and holiness. Nor should he be content with any- 
thing short of this. Paul's resolution should be 
his: *'Not as though I had already attained, either 
were already perfect ; but I follow after, if that I 
may apprehend that for which also I am appre- 
hended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not 
myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I 
do, forgetting those things which are behind, and 
reaching forth unto those things which are before, I 
press toward the mark for the prize of the high 
calling of God in Christ Jesus. '"^ Such should be 
the spirit and resolution of every Christian, and 
such they will be according to the measure of the 
grace given him. He who is content with his pres- 
ent attainments in grace has never attained any 
grace at all, but is deceiving himself. 

Observation 2. T/ie divine life i7i its groivih and 
progress in the soul meets continued opposition and 
obstruction. It is opposed by the malice and arts 
of Satan, by the evil example and influence of a 
wicked world, and, above all, by the remaining 
powers and principles of indwelling sin. Much sin 

* Philippians iii. 12-14. 



126 THE PARABLE 

remains in the new convert. It is called in the 
Bible by such terms as ''the law in the members/' 
''the flesh," "the old man," "the body of sin," 
"the body of death," "the lusts of the flesh." 
These make vigorous and often fearful opposition to 
the spread and power of the heavenly leaven, so 
that oftentimes when the believer would do good 
evil is present with him. The law in his members 
wars against the law in his mind, and sometimes, 
for a season, brings him into captivity to the law 
of sin that is in his members.* Sometimes his 
steps have well-nigh slipped in the path of duty, 
and his feet have been almost gone.f Sometimes 
through a want of circumspection, he is brought 
into the net and the bands lie upon his loins. He 
dwells in darkness, like one dead of old. Waters 
almost cover him, his soul well-nigh sinks beneath 
the stream. Sometimes he is made to feel as if his 
power were gone and God had forsaken him. For 
many a weary hour he is left to struggle and 
strangle as he prays, "Save me, O God, for the 
waters are come in unto my soul. I sink in deep 
mire" (of my sins), "where there is no standing. 
O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my sins 
are not hid from thee. Draw nigh to my soul, and 
redeem it: deliver me because of my enemies. "J 

Observation 3. Although the leaven of life meets 
with opposition and obstruction in the soul, still it is 
in the long run victorious and spi e ads farther and far- 
then Though the good man fall, he shall not be 



* Romans vii. 14-24. t Psalm Ixxiii. 2. 
X Psalm Ixix. I, 2, 5, 18. 



OF THE LEA VEN. 



127 



utterly cast down, because the Lord with his 
strong hand upholds him.* Gathering wisdom 
and strength from his hurt, he rises from his fall, 
and the language of his faith and hope is: *' Rejoice 
not against me, O mine enemy." Thus gathering 
experience, wisdom and strength from his very 
falls, and heart and hope from his mishaps and 
sorrows, the Christian goes on increasing toward 
the measure of the stature of the full-grown man in 
Christ, The leaven spreads in his heart and souL 
He is weaned more and more from his idolatries 
and his sins; and leans more and more on God. 
He finds an increasing delight in religious exercises 
and duties. He comes more and more to set his 
trust and hope in God, More and more the immo- 
ralities and impurities of his heart are rooted out, 
and more and more does he gather of the purities 
and joys of heaven into his bosom. He goes on 
from strength to strength ; his path becomes brighter 
and brighter ; his step becomes steadier, his hand 
more skillful, and his heart more cheerful. He be- 
comes more and more resigned to the will of God, 
and confides in his name more and more. His 
understanding is enlightened more and more, and 
he gets a clearer and still clearer insight into the 
glories of redemption by Jesus Christ. His affec- 
tions are more and more purified, and become more 
and more like those of the redeemed in heaven. 
His conscience is continually a more faithful mon- 
itor. More and more does he find that his heart 
and hope and home are in heaven. And amid 

* P.salm xxxvii. 24- 



128 THE PARABLE 

storm and amid sunshine this work of God in his 
soul goes steadily on to its final consummation. 

Observation 4. This growth is not always a sensible 
aitd perceptible growth. The saint is not at all times 
conscious of a present advancement. The young 
oak, that has sprung from the acorn, has both its 
winter and summer seasons. There are times when, 
by the frost, it is stripped of all its green and 
goodly foliage, and all its vital juices are turned to 
ice in their frozen cells ; when its youthful stem and 
leafless branches strain for life in winter's fierce and 
howling tempests. And he, who looks with un- 
taught eye upon the blasted and straining tree, 
declares its glory gone, and its hope lost. But it is 
not so. Even this death-like winter inures to its 
advantage. The hoar frost hardens its fibers, and 
the fierce winds train its roots faster and firmer 
round the rocks beneath the soil. When a hundred 
winters shall have come and gone, lifting itself up, 
the monarch of the forest, with a deeper root and 
a tougher trunk, it will fling abroad its stalwart 
arms with a bolder and hardier defiance than ever 
before to the dark tempests that thunder around 
them. So it is with those who are planted by the 
grace of God in the hill of Zion. The regenerated 
soul has its seasons when no visible progress, though 
real progress is made. Has it turned aside from 
God? Has it looked to wealth, power, honor, 
pleasure, or any other earthly thing, as its staff of 
strength and its fountain of joy? The very sudden- 
ness and bitterness of the disappointment drives it 
in distress and tears back to God, from whom it 



OF THE LEA VEN, 1 29 

had wandered, and fixes it there more firmly than 
before. Do Satan, the world and the flesh war 
against it, seemingly vanquish it, lead it to the very 
verge of the precipice, and almost ruin it? In its 
very extremity, and misery, and despair, it learns, 
as it never learned before, that the Lord is its tower 
of strength, and it comes to hide under his wing and 
lean on his arm and to trust to his protection, as it 
never would have learned to do, without just such 
a trial as this. 

We might, at great length and by many instaiLces, 
show that this growth, though continual, is not 
always perceptible, either to the believer himself 
or to others. Like the leaven in meal, grace works 
silently, secretly, continually and effectually, and 
though its progress be not at every instant visible, 
still it works surely on to an accomplishment of the 
intended result. 

Observation 5. We should mollify the harshness of 
our judgments upon zvcak and erring brethren. We 
are not to expect perfection on earth. The leaven 
of the divine life will not have fully done its work 
this side of the grave. In the case of all real Chris- 
tians, their falls and seeming retrogressions shall, in 
the end, work to their spiritual advantage. Now 
that the inherent and innate poison that taints the 
soul has broken out into active and malignant dis- 
ease ; now that the inward leprosy has broken out 
into loathsome and deadly distemper; be assured 
that the unhappy sufferer is learning to look to the 
Great Physician, and to prize him and love him as 
he never did before; Now that the poor pilgrim in 



I 30 THE PARABLE 

this weary wilderness has been assaulted by ene- 
mies; now that he is foiled and baffled, vanquished 
and driven back; now that he is down and helpless 
and bleeding and almost destroyed ; be assured he 
is lifting his eyes to the hills of his help, and calling 
upon his Captain, Jehovah Sabaoth, as he never 
called before. Be assured he is learning new lessons 
of the preciousness of Christ, and of the evils of a 
proud and a careless w^alk, which will profit him all 
hi^ days. Although he shall carry the scars of this 
contest to the grave, yet assuredly he will hence- 
forth keep close to Jesus, and go up through this 
great wilderness '* leaning upon the arm^ of his Be- 
loved." 

Observation 6. The text suggests the reason for 
most of the diLties whicli the New Testament enjoins 
upon Omstians with respect to one another. Is the 
work of divine grace a gradual work, like leaven 
spreading through the meal? Then during its prog- 
ress, Christians are imperfect, and hence the reason 
why you should bear and forbear with one another. 
Hence also the reason why you should sympathize 
with each other in your sorrows, and pray for each 
other, edify one another, and provoke to love and 
good works; why when one is overtaken in a fault, 
others who are spiritual should restore him in the 
spirit of meekness, considering themselves lest they 
also be tempted. 

Observation 7. But let me not be understood, as 
lo'ivcring the standard of Christian morality or piety. 
Nor let me be understood as admitting that Chris- 
tians have not a higher — taken as a class, a much 



OF THE LEAVEN, 



131 



higher — standard of morality and piety than others. 
Christians are imperfect; and scornful opposers, as 
keen to descry their faults as the vulture to scent 
the carcass, often pounce upon them, ridicule Chris- 
tianity, blaspheme Christians, and say, ** There is 
no reality in their religion — they are no better than 
other men." This is an old objection, and has been 
often and variously answered. One sufficient an- 
swer is this: ''The charge is not true, and those who 
make it know it is not true." Empty your jails of 
all except true Christians, and your sheriffs will be 
idle. Reprieve from the gallows all except true 
Christians, and you will abolish capital punishment. 
Empty the land of all except them, and you will not 
leave a thief, a gambler, a drunkard, a robber, or 
a cut-throat in it. Banish all but them, and grog- 
shops will go down, and schools, churches and alms- 
houses will go up (if, indeed, alms-houses should 
then be needed), ignorance will disappear, and the 
sun of science will shine from hill to valley. Empty 
the world of all but them, and you will turn the 
world into a Paradise again. Men will then take 
off locks and bolts from the doors of their dwellings 
and sleep securely. Empty the world of all except 
them, and all the nations will become one great 
confederated republic. Before five years shall have 
elapsed armies will be disbanded and navies left to 
rot in the harbor, weapons of war will be changed 
into instruments of peaceful industry, and a univer- 
sal shout will ring from mountain and plain, *' Glory 
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good- 
will toward men." 



132 



THE PARABLE 



On the contrary, take all true, earnest, warm- 
hearted Christians from the land, and you have not 
rescued one prisoner from jail, nor delivered one 
victim from the gallows, nor diminished the crowd 
of criminals that swarm in our streets by a single 
man, nor abated the ignorance, vice and filthy 
squalor of community by a single jot. You have 
taken, however, from society all the leaven of virtue 
it had, and all the salt which kept it from rotting, 
and in one generation, or at most two, your entire 
population will be as destitute of moral worth and 
as besotted in coarse and damning vice, as are those 
veriest devils that have just astounded and terrified 
the world by enacting their infernal atrocities in 
India.* Yet these incarnate fiends are human 
beings. They have that fallen, depraved human 
nature which is common to all, and, as all history 
shows, are but fair specimens of what men always 
have been and always will be without the religion 
of the Bible. 



^ The Sepoy Rebellion. — Ed. 



OF THE LEAVEN. 



133 



SERMON VI. 
The Parable of the Leayen. 



MATTHEW XIII. 33. 
{Second Sermon.) 



Having considered, in the preceding discourse, 
the work of divine grace in the individual soul, we 
come now to consider the influence of Christianity 
upon the world. As this new and divine life, when 
infused into a soul, spreads more and more, until it 
gains the mastery and assimilates the whole soul 
to God, so Christianity infused into the world is 
destined to spread until all the societies, laws, cus- 
toms and institutions of men shall be imbued with 
it, and the whole world be filled with the life and 
love of God. 

God, the great Author of all, made our world 
very good. He made man in his own image — his 
body beautiful, perfect and immortal, his mind and 
heart perfectly pure and good. His ''understand- 
ing was light in the Lord." His heart was a spirit- 
- ual altar on which burned, day and night, the living 
flame of pure and holy affections. The frames and 



134 TEE PARABLE 

tempers of mind and heart, which give to heaven 
all its sweetness, were his. He was placed in a 
home meet for such a resident. Paradise, a garden 
planned by the mind, and finished by the finger, of 
'God, was his home. And there, in rosy bowers, 
fanned by gentle and balmy winds ; the birds and 
brooks and breeze his music ; the tree of life his 
food ; the angels his guards and companions ; God, 
the great and glorious I AM, his friend and daily 
visitor; the sweet and lovely Eve his helpmeet; 
happiness throbbing in every pulse, hope blooming 
in every blossom, music softly swelling in every 
sound, beauty beaming in every ray, glory glow- 
ing in every star, rapture dwelling in every touch, 
deliciousness gushing in every fruit, immortality 
flowing in purple tides in every limb, he dwelt 
embowered in bliss. But in an evil hour Satan 
came, and man fell — man yielded, and was lost. 
Sin was introduced upon our earth — the glory 
of our world was marred— God's image was de- 
faced in all human bosoms — moral anarchy and 
disorder became universal — the world became a 
wandering star, reeling into the blackness of dark- 
ness — Satan became the god of this world — im- 
mortality perished — joy vanished — piety died — 
virtue faded — peace expired — hope fled — darkness 
entered — death reigned, and a flood of sin, self- 
ishness, sorrow and despair engulfed all. But 
God is good, merciful, long-suffering and gracious. 
He remembered our world in its low and lost con- 
dition, He laid help upon One that is mighty, and 
sent him hither to destroy the works of the devil, 



OF THE LEAVEN, 



135 



to redeem man, to reclaim our lost world, and 
restore it to its allegiance to God. When the divine 
Deliverer came, day dawned, and the daystar arose 
upon our earth. The Son of God became incar- 
nate, and wrought out salvation for sinners. He 
obeyed, suffered, died, rose again, and ascended to 
heaven, as our covenant head, surety and substi- 
tute. After his ascension, all power in heaven and 
earth being put into his hands for the accomplish- 
ment of his high undertaking, he shed forth the 
Holy Spirit as a Spirit of resurrection and life in 
our world. He converted men, established the 
Church, and gave to it ordinances and officers. 
He has made the Church the light of the world 
and the salt of the earth. Thus a new era dawned 
upon our world. A new life, and, with it, a new 
hope, was given to our race. And the prophecy 
of our parable is, that this new light and life shall 
spread, like leaven, through all the world and fill it 
with holiness and virtue. 

When expounding the parable of the mustard- 
tree, we showed that it prophesied abundantly 
that the Christian Church shall never be destroyed, 
but that it shall become universal, and last forever. 
We also showed that this universal dominion is to 
be beneficent in its character and results — that it is 
to be a dominion of righteousness and peace, of 
justice and love, of light and purity and prosperity. 
This same class of truths is suggested in the parable 
of the leaven. As the whole quantity of meal was 
leavened, so the whole w^orld is to be pervaded and 
influenced by Christianity. The nations that sit in 



136 THE PARABLE 

darkness and in the shadow of death are yet to be 
enHghtened. Intellectual and moral night is yet to 
be chased from all the earth by the Sun of right- 
eousness. War, despotism and slavery, ignorance, 
vice and immorality, with the sorrows they produce, 
are to be abolished. Intelligence, piety, morality, 
benevolence and beneficence will become universal, 
and earth keep jubilee a thousand years. All fami- 
lies shall be nurseries for heaven ; all institutions 
shall be based upon the laws of the Bible ; all 
civil governments shall be so many shields to defend 
the earth ; all civil rulers so many ministers of God 
to men for good ; all social circles so many centers 
of intellectual and moral life and purity and joy; 
and all public enterprises so many schemes origin- 
ated in wisdom and love, executed with power and 
skill, and conducted to a benevolent issue. As the 
leaven hid in three measures of meal spread and 
spread, until the whole was leavened, so the king- 
dom of heaven, the life and power of God, pen- 
etrating the family, the Church and the State, 
operates in them silently, secretly, mightily and 
continually, and shall continue thus to operate, 
from generation to generation, and from century 
to century, until the whole earth is converted and 
Christianized. And then shall be heard a voice, 
like the sound of many waters, like the sound of 
mighty thunderings, going up round about the 
thone, from the face of the whole earth and from 
under the whole heavens, saying: ''Amen, Alleluia: 
for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." Viewing 
the text, in this light, we remark as follows : 



OF THE LEA VEN, 



m 



I. Divine grace, in operating on the world, uses 
the means best suited to its purpose, 

(i,) It enlightens men as to truth and duty. By 
the word, read and preached, it appeals to them 
as reasonable beings. It makes them acquainted 
with God in his being, perfections, works and pur- 
poses, ajid with his just and reasonable claims upon 
their love, w^orship and service. It makes them 
acquainted with their own origin, condition and des- 
tiny. It informs them as to their present, fallen 
and miserable condition, and of the way of salvation 
through Jesus Christ. It tells them what they are 
to believe concerning God, and what duty God 
requires of man. The Bible is a lamp from heaven 
to guide us to heaven. It is a light to our feet 
and a lamp to our path. He who devoutly and 
reverently studies it will be made wise unto salva- 
tion. It is a perfect standard of moral truth and 
duty. Its precepts conduct infallibly to wisdom, 
purity, peace, and to heaven. 

*« Within this awful volume lies 
The mystery of mysteries. 
Oh, happiest they of human race, 
To whom our God has given grace 
To read, to hear, to fear, to pray, 
To lift the latch and force the way; 
But better had they ne'er been born 
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn." 

(2. ) It presents the most suitable and pozverful mo- 
tives to influence men to a life of holiness and virtue. 
It tells men of an Omniscient God, from whom they 
can conceal nothing. It tells them of an Omnipres- 
12 



I 38 THE PARABLE 

ent God, from whom they can not escape, though 
they should chmb into heaven, or dig into hell, or 
flee on the wings of light to the ends of the sea. 
It tells them of a pure and holy God, in whose 
presence evil can not dwell, and who is angry with 
wicked men every day. It tells them of the rewards 
of virtue and vice, both in this world and in the 
world to come. In short, the motives, with which it 
influences men, are high as heaven, deep as hell, 
sweet as life, terrible as death, lasting as eternity, 
and weighty as the infinite favor or the infinite wTath 
of God, resting upon soul or body forever and ever. 
With such motives as these, it arrests the hands of 
violence, seals the eyes of concupiscence, and closes 
the lips of all iniquity. With such motives as these, 
it fans the kindling flame of charity, nerves the toil- 
ing hand of virtue, sustains the weary heart of 
philanthropy, and strews with flowers the path of 
piety and virtue. ''This is my comfort in my afflic- 
tion: for thy word hath quickened me."* 

(3.) It affords the world the most zvortJiy patterns 
of lioli?iess and virtue. Active and heavenly-minded 
Christians are the light and s^lt of the world. They 
are the epistles of Christ, known and read of all 
men, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of 
God, not on tables of stone, but on the fleshly 
tables of the heart. And their example and influ- 
ence are made to tell with effect upon all the laws, 
customs, institutions, sentiments, and manners of 
the world. In proportion as Christians are led by 
the Spirit of Christ, in that proportion (though 

^*- Psalm cxix. 50. 



OF THE LEA VEN. I ^g 

they be a little company) will the influence of their 
example be wide-reaching and salutary. In our 
preceding discourse we adverted to some of the 
blessed and glorious achievements of Christianity 
in the promotion of worth and excellence of indi- 
vidual character. In this way Christianity exerts a 
powerful influence upon the world. It has thus very 
largely mitigated the cruelties of war and the penal 
severities of criminal laws. It has covered all Chris- 
tendom with benevolent institutions for the relief of 
the indigent, the unfortunate, and infirm. Under its 
benign influence, the cruel and corrupting fashions 
and amusements of other times and of unchristian 
countries have been banished. Gladiatorial games 
are unknown in Christian lands. Aliens and stran- 
gers are no longer treated as enemies. The do- 
mestic and social position of woman is recognized. 
She is no longer regarded as a slave or a chattel, 
but is treated as man's companion and his other self. 
That all this, and much else that time would fail to 
tell, have been accomplished by Christianity is sus- 
ceptible of the most overwhelming demonstration. 
I know of no great historian or philosopher who 
doubts it, and even some infidel authors admit it. 

2. The second general remark we make is that 
the leaven of life w^hich Christ brought down from 
heaven and infused into humanity zvill finally assim- 
ilate the whole world to God. 

Already has its reformatory influence been im- 
mense and incalculable on all the nations among 
whom it has spread. In order to estimate this 
aright, I would have to give you a picture of what 



140 



THE PARABLE 



the world has been and is where the Bible and its 
influence are unknown ; and then another of what it 
is and is becoming, where the influence of the Bible 
prevails. Take any country, in which the life and 
power of Christianity are unknown, and you will 
find such things as we now proceed to mention. 

(i.) In such a country ze/^r has ferocities which 
make a Christian's ears tingle at the hearing of 
them. Who has not heard of the almost satanic, 
hellish cruelties which the Indians of this country 
inflict upon their enemies. You all know that no 
age, no sex, no rank, no property, no rights, are 
sacred with them. You have all been told how 
they maim, torture and butcher in the most cruel 
manner. The bare recital of their atrocious barbar- 
ities makes the blood run cold, and keeps the eyes 
unclosed at night on the sleepless pillow. And now 
remember that what war is among them, v: is and 
always has been among nations that have i ot been 
leavened with the religion of Jesus. All profane 
history is but one immense and overwhelming 
proof of what I say. Were I to commence giving 
instances, I could not tell where to begin or where 
to end. Whose ears have not tingled, and whose 
blood has not curdled in his veins, as for the last few 
months he read the news from India? Or who is 
ignorant of the atrocities which the contending fac- 
tions in China, in the civil war which has been 
v/aging for years, perpetrate upon each other ? And 
who is so ignorant as not to know that what war is 
among North American Indians, what war is in 
India, and what war is in China, war is and always 



OF THE LEA VEN. 



141 



has been in countries into which Christ has not 
infused the leaven of the kingdom of heaven? 
When or where was war less hellish in its char- 
acter among nations that knew not God? Was it 
among the ancient Carthagenians ? Let a single 
instance stand for all. Asdrubal, their general, to 
avenge a defeat, collected all the prisoners he had 
taken in two whole years, and subjected them to the 
most exquisite tortures, putting out their eyes, cut- 
ting off their ears, fingers, legs and arms, tearing 
their skin with iron rakes and harrows, and then 
throwing them headlong from the city wall. Was 
it among the brave and polite Greeks? Let one 
instance instead of a hundred thousand answer. I 
refer to the treatment of the Brachidse by Alexan- 
der. These people submitted without opposition 
and opened their gates with demonstrations of joy. 
But he plundered their city and burnt it, and mur- 
dered the inhabitants, not leaving a single living 
soul — and all this because their ancestors, one hun- 
dred and fifty years before, had done something 
inimical to the interests of Greece. Was it among 
the Goths and" Vandals? Genghis Khan pursued 
the plan of utter extermination in his wars and 
hesitated not to butcher a hundred thousand per- 
sons at once. Tamerlane is said to have been more 
humane; and the historians inform us that '*he 
seldom carried his sportive cruelty further than 
pounding three or four thousand people in mortars 
or building them among bricks in a wall." If such 
be the tender mercies of the wicked, how dreadful 
beyond description must their cruelties be? I could 



142 THE PARABLE 

spend the whole of every day for a week in giving 
similar instances of cruelty in war- — instances taken 
from every unchristianized country, w^hose history 
has been written — to show that war has been every- 
where and always the same among men, who were 
not leavened with the life from heaven. 

And cruel as w^ar is in Christian lands, it is evi- 
dent that the spirit of Him, who said ''Love your 
enemies," is gradually prevailing more and more in 
Christendom. It will continue to prevail until all 
those selfish and malevolent passions which lead to 
war shall be banished or repressed. The time is 
coming when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb — 
the time of universal love and peace. 

Now I could easily show that the progress toward 
sentiments of humanity and justice in war, that has 
been made in Christian lands, has been equaled in 
every other department of human rights, interests 
and feelings. Did we look into the domestic and 
household interests of men who live without the 
Bible, and then look into the home and the family 
as they are in Christian lands ; did we examine 
the civil and political institutions of lands without 
Christ and contrast them with those of lands where 
Christianity has begun to exert a controlling influ- 
ence ; did we look into the systems of moral phi- 
losophy or of jurisprudence, that have prevailed 
among men ; or look where we will, we will find 
that Christian life and principle, in Christian lands, 
are gradually diffusing a new life and power and 
goodness and glory into ail human institutions. In 
several countries men are already so far reformed 



OF THE LEA VEN. 



143 



as to be capable of free institutions. Truth and 
honesty are so advanced in Christian and especially 
in Protestant countries, where the Bible is free, as 
to furnish a stable foundation for a commerce Avhich 
reaches around the world. Truth and justice so far 
prevail as to make our civil tribunals something 
more than a mockery. The rights of person and 
property and conscience are every century coming 
to be more and more understood and respected. 
The rights of international hospitality are almost 
entirely established thoughout Christendom. 

Doubtless much remains to be done. Christian 
life has only comparatively begun to manifest its 
power and glory in Christian lands. Its triumphs, 
great as they have been, are to be eclipsed by 
greater triumphs yet to come. Christendom, glory 
of the earth as it is, shall yet become far more glori- 
ous. Reformation shall go on in every department 
of society, until righteousness shall flow down our 
streets like a mighty current. The knowledge of 
the Lord shall cover the earth, as waters cover the 
sea. Knowledge, virtue and holiness shall increase 
and spread abroad until the light of the moon shall 
be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun 
seven fold, as the light of seven days, and all injus- 
tice, impurity and iniquity shall, as ashamed, hide 
their faces from the indignant gaze of redeemed and 
purified society. Sabbath-breaking, and its chain 
of kindred crimes and sorrows, and the voice of blas- 
phemy, shall cease out of the land. Drunkenness, 
idleness, ignorance, and vice of every kind, shall 
be abolished or hedged in on every side. Intelli- 



144 ^^^ PARABLE 

gence, virtue, piety and industry shall be encour- 
aged and rewarded. Yea, the leaven of the life 
from heaven shall work among mankind until the 
whole race is leavened, and earth reflects the image 
of God. And then when the vast resources of 
money and human lives, which have been lavished 
in war, and engulfed in a Red Sea of blood, and the 
vast resources of money and time and talent and 
Hfe, which are now engulfed in the Dead Sea of 
appetite and passion and sin, are all saved and 
turned, as rivers of life, upon earth's great moral 
Saharas ; then shall the wilderness and the solitary 
place be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice 
and blossom as the rose. Then shall men, more 
and still more indued with the divine leaven, which 
is a leaven of glory to God and love to men, have 
both the times and the means to undertake and 
accomplish every good work. The arts and sciences 
shall be cultivated assiduously, and with the most 
astonishing and beneficent results. Civil society 
shall be constructed anew, and every heavy abuse 
and wrong swept away. Earth and sea will be 
reduced again to human subjection. Everythfng 
will become a willing servant to man and minister 
to his welfare. Schools and churches will cover 
and crown the land. Medical science will protect 
from disease, or triumph over it in a manner and to 
an extent of which we can as yet form but an 
imperfect conception; and, in conjunction with tem- 
perance in all things and a more complete knowl- 
edge of physical laws, it will so prolong human life 
that the age of a man shall be as the age of a tree, 



OF THE LEAVEN. j^j 

and a child shall die a hundred years old. * God, 
even our God, shall bless us. Men shall be blessed 
in him. He will breathe down upon us blessings 
as thick and bright as sunbeams. 

Nor shall the leaven of the kingdom of God be 
confined to countries presently Christian. It shall 
spread farther and farther until it leavens all the 
countries and families of earth. Not a roving band 
of Tartars, not a plundering horde of Arabians, not 
a cannibal tribe of Africans, not a roving sailor on 
the rolling deep, not a lonely dweller in a sea-girt 
isle, but the leaven of heavenly life shall reach and 
leaven them all. Light shall shine over all earth's 
darkness. Life shall enter into all the dry bones 
in this valley of vision, and they shall live and arise 
and stand upon their feet, an exceeding great army. 
The sure word of promise has pledged it. The 
great arm of Jesus has undertaken it, and it shall 
be done. Even now it is in the way of being 
accomplished. Silently, secretly, noiselessly, the 
leaven spreads, and you might as soon attempt to 
stop the sunlight, or the winds of heaven, as to stay 
its progress. Further, we near the times fixed by 
prophecy for the speedy and wonderful completion 
of this work. All the signs of the times confirm 
this view. 

If we look back at the progress made during the 
last half century, w^ho can help exclaiming: ''What 
hath God wrought?" Fifty years ago,f no country 



"•'■ Isaiah Ixv. 20. 

t About seventy years from the present time (A. D. 1876), this 
sermon being prepared about twenty years ago. — Ed. 

13 



I4t> 



THE PARABLE 



seemed open to missionary effort — notv every coun- 
try IS open and invites the Church to enter. Then 
no people seemed wiHing- to receive instruction in 
Christianity-— ;^^z^ tens of thousands and tens of mill- 
ions are literally importuning us to preach among 
them Jesus Christ and him crucified. 7he7t the 
entire Protestant world gave for missionary work 
only about twenty thousand dollars — now it gives 
almost as many millions. Then we had hardly mas- 
tered the language of one pagan nation, so that we 
could preach Christ to them — -now there is hardly 
a language which we have not mastered. Then we 
could hardly be said to have established missions 
anywhere — now we have established them almost 
everywhere. Then we had hardly six missionaries 
-—now we have ten thousand. Theit \vq had hardly 
one convQ:rt~notv we have two hundred and fifty 
thousand converts. Then hardly a Christian any- 
where felt the obligation to live and labor for the 
world's conversion — now there is hardly a Chris- 
tian anywhere who is not beginning to buckle on 
the harness. You will hardly find a church, or a 
prayer-meeting, or a family altar, or a closet, where 
prayer is not offered to the Lord of the harvest. 
You will hardly find a congregation, anywhere, in 
which there is not some one or perhaps several 
members, who are devoting sons and daughters to 
this work, while their brethren are devoting their 
gains to sustain them. All this and much more 
has been accomplished. But I forbear. Time 
would fail to tell of Bibles translated in the lan- 
guages of more than six hundred millions of the 



OF THE LEAVEN. I47 

race; of tracts and books prepared and published; 
of presses in operation ; of the journeys and ser- 
mons and labors of ten thousand laborers in Christ's 
vineyard ; of the silent and unseen power exerted 
by Bibles and books and tracts, and by two hund- 
red and fifty thousand converts scattered among the' 
nations, and every one of them a center of influence, 
a focus of light, a fountain of life, and a lever of 
power in the place and among the people where he 
dwells^ And now again I ask, How can we look 
back upon the achievements of the last fifty years 
and not see that this leaven spreads faster and fur- 
ther than ever before ; and that it is destined, and 
that right speedily, to leaven the whole mass of 
humanity? 

3. I ask, in conclusion, who regrets the prospect? 
Who regrets to see this leaven of Christian life and 
power spreading as it does, and extending its influ- 
ence as it does? Surely no good man does, no 
lover of human rights and weal, no man who loves 
virtue and fears God, no man who desires to see 
the race happy here and saved hereafter. Destroy 
Christianity, and you destroy the last hope of the 
philanthropist and the patriot. Destroy Christian- 
ity, and you destroy the last hope of the sinner, 
and that to all eternity. Destroy it, and you 
destroy the only perfect standard of truth and 
duty the world has ever seen or will ever see; you 
destroy the most high and weighty motives to a 
life of purity and justice and benevolence the world 
has ever had ; you destroy the only living moral 
power now in the world, the last remaining barrier 



148 ^^^ PARABLE 

against the gloomy and obscene horrors of supersti- 
tion and the frantic atrocities of atheism. Destroy 
it, and you at once sap the foundations of every 
institution now existing on earth, and cut the nerves 
of every benevolent enterprise which has been un- 
dertaken, and is now progressing in the world. 
Destroy it, and you unseal the kindling volcano of 
human passions, you unchain the tiger in the human 
breast, you let loose the whirlwinds and the water- 
spout on life's tempestuous ocean* Destroy it, and 
— ^but enough. Thank God, you can not destroy it. 
This leaven from on high, this life of God, breathed 
by God himself into a dead world, you can not 
der.troy. Bad men and devils have tried it long 
enough to be convinced, at last, that they have 
undertaken an enterprise as impossible and hope- 
less, as it is purely and simply devilish and infernal. 
Try it, if you choose, and you may succeed in 
plucking red damnation down upon yourself. Go, 
gather round you all the sons of Belial you can 
find ; go, and make a covenant with death and a 
compact with hell ; go, and fortify yourself on every 
side ; and then go out to resist Jehovah in his great 
purpose; yet He that sits in heaven shall laugh. 
Jehovah shall have you in derision. He will brush 
aside the efforts of you and your allies with ten 
thousand times the ease with which you sweep 
away a cobweb. He will crush you all with ten 
thousand times the ease, aye, with ten thousand 
times the good-will with which you would crush a 
spider. This leaven of life divine shall spread and 
spread in the world until the whole is leavened. 



I 

I 



OF THE LEAVEN. 



149 



And every good man on earth shall join every glo- 
rified being in heaven, in a shout like the sound of 
many waters, like the sound of mighty thunderings, 
saying: *'Amen, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnip 



otent reigneth. 



CONCLUSION. 



1. The fulfillment of the prophecies, as to the 
universal spread and power of Christianity, shows 
that the Bible is of God. 

2. The indomitable and inextinguishable life and 
power of Christianity and its beneficent and holy 
influences show it is from heaven and sustained by 
heaven. 

3. Therefore the infidel and he who neglects this 
great salvation are in an awful condition, and an 
awful doom awaits them, except they repent. 

Let Christians thank God and take courage, and 
double and treble their efforts for the conversion 
of the world. 



I50 THE PARABLES 



SERMON VII. 



The Parables ofthe Hid Treasui\e 

AND THE PeAI^, 



MATTHEW XIII. 44-46. 



Syria, owing to its central situation, was in an- 
cient times the gateway between Europe, Asia and 
Africa, and consequently was a meeting-place and 
battle-ground for three continents. It was also in 
immediate propinquity to nomadic and warlike 
tribes. Hence wars there were frequent and their 
ravages frightful. Nor were non-combatants allowed 
to escape. Everything was made a prey. Conse- 
quently the inhabitants often turned their property 
into coin and secreted it — *' buried'* it — in a field for 
sake-keeping. Not unfrequently the owner of the 
hidden treasure would perish in war or otherwise, 
and the treasure be lost; and so it came about, that, 
more frequently than with us, treasures were unex- 
pectedly found hid in a field or elsewhere. 

Having in the preceding parables illustrated the 
growth of the kingdom of heaven in the soul and in 
the world, the Savior here teaches the necessity of 



OF THE HID TREASURE AND THE PEARL. 151 

a personal interest therein. He teaches that relig- 
ion must be a personal thing — that men must make 
it the business of their lives to gain an interest in 
Jesus Christ and the blessings of salvation. This is 
taught in the parables of the treasure and of the 
pearl. The great lessons taught in both these par- 
ables are as follows: 

1. Salvation is a great and priceless treasure. It is 
worth more than all else that a man can possibly 
possess ; for what is a man profited though he gain 
the whole world and lose his own soul, or what can 
a man give in exchange for his soul? 

2. A man must make the treasure his own. Great 
and valuable as it is, it can not profit us unless it is 
ours. What will treasure profit a man who does 
not possess it, or medicine a man who does not 
receive it, or food a man who does not eat it, or 
salvation a man who never embraces it, or Christ a 
man who has no part nor lot in Him ? 

3. A mart must be willing to part with everything 
else for Christ aitd salvation. When he finds the 
treasure of eternal life hid in the gospel field, he 
must go and sell all he has and buy that field: when 
he finds the pearl of great price he must part with 
all he has and buy that pearl, or they can never be 
his. He that would be Christ's must be ready for 
Christ's sake to part with everything else. He must 
love him more than father. and mother, brother and 
sister, wife and children, houses and lands, and more 
than his own life, or he can not be Christ's disciple. 

4. The two parables teach these lessons, but 
with a difference. One class of men find the treas- 



152 



THE PARABLES 



ures of everlasting life without seeking for them. 
Men digging in a field come, as it were, by accident, 
on a hid treasure for. which they were not looking 
and not expecting. So with some men in obtaining 
salvation. It comes unexpectedly and at once. 
But another class find salvation only after long and 
patient searching, as the merchantman seeking 
goodly pearls. Of this class the parable of the 
pearl treats, but the text to-day treats of the former 
— the men who at once come to a knowledge of 
salvation without a long and tedious and painful 
search after it. The treasure, buried in the field, 
whose owner died long ago, would, of course, some- 
times be found by those digging therein ; and gen- 
erally the finding would be unlooked for and acci- 
dental. This emblemizes the case of many, to 
whom salvation comes in its fullness and power and 
ejfificacy at a time Avhen it is unlooked for, unsought 
and neglected. This parable beautifully presents 
the facts in the personal redemption of those who 
find salvation, without seeking after it carefully and 
painfully, like the merchantman seeking goodly 
pearls, but to whom it comes unexpectedly, and 
takes possession of them at once and fully. 

I. As an illustration, we may refer to those who, 
like Jeremiah and John the Baptist,* were regen- 
erated in infancy, together with many, very many, 
who being dedicated in infancy to God, in the sacra- 
ment of baptism, by pious parents, in the exercise 
of a living faith in God's covenant promise, did, with 
the water of baptism, receive the washing of regen- 

■''• Jeremiah i. 5. Luke i. 15. 



THE HID TREASURE AND THE PEARL. 



153 



eration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Rut 
beside this conversion of infants and children, many 
adults are brought into possession of the great sal- 
vation in a very similar way. Careless and thought- 
less persons, ignorant and wicked persons, are 
sometimes by God's providence and grace met 
and arrested and aw^akened and turned to God and 
saved, as the Philippian jailer and Saul the perse- 
cutor. Such were Abraham and his family under 
the Old Testament dispensation;^ and under the 
New, there were such cases as those of Matthew, 
Levi, Nathanael, the woman of Samaria, and the 
multitudes who were converted at Pentecost. The 
Savior's miracles of healing were wrought not only 
on those who, like blind Bartimeus, cried out after 
him, but also on those who were not seeking him, 
as at Bethesda, and at Cana, and upon the man with 
a withered hand. 

Similar instances are occurring constantly in 
our own times. To many who are neither seeking 
nor desiring salvation, but who are living wholly 
under the power of a carnal, worldly and selfish 
mind ; and, ever and anon, to those who are, like 
Manasseh and Saul of Tarsus, bitter opponents and 
persecutors, the Savior, by his providence and grace, 
comes in his power and love, and alarms, enlightens, 
allures, renews, and saves them. By one mighty 
wonder-stroke of providence and grace, after 
another, in rapid succession, they are made willing 
in the day of his power, and become new creatures 
in Christ Jesus. 

'•' Joshua xxiv. 2, 15. 



154 



THE PARABLES 



Corollary i. These facts show that they are 
mistaken who suppose they must necessarily pass 
through long periods of conviction and distress and 
delay and doubt before they can come to Christ and 
be accepted. Awakening and conviction are neces- 
sary ; but whoever sees and feels that he is a lost 
sinner, and desires salvation above all things, and 
sees Jesus as a Savior perfectly suited to his needs, 
and as the only Savior, and desires to be saved by 
him, has the privilege to come and cast himself 
upon him now. Nay, it is his duty. He need not 
wait for deeper convictions, nor for more poignant 
grief. Nor need he wait to amend his ways, or to 
purify his heart. Let him, like the Prodigal, like 
the hearers at Pentecost, like Saul of Tarsus, come 
now, just as he is, and rest his soul on Jesus, and be 
at peace with God, and receive the Holy Spirit, and 
evermore be a child of God. 

Corollary 2. This view also sheds light on many 
cases where the individual is in doubt as to his con- 
version. The feeling is, that where such a radical 
change of heart and mind, as is implied in conver- 
sion, takes place, the convert ought to know of it, 
and of the time when it occurred. But in the case 
of all those (and they are not few) who were con- 
verted in infancy, to recollect the time is^ plainly 
impossible. Whoever feels his sinfulness and has 
found the treasure of salvation in Christ Jesus, and is 
embracing him as a Savior, and with solicitous care 
is walking in him, building on him, and laying up 
his heart with his treasures in heaven, is a converted 
and a saved soul, whether he can recollect or fix the 



OF THE HID TREASURE AND THE PEARL. 



155 



time of the great crisis of his change or not. Who- 
ever is receiving and resting on Christ for wisdom 
and righteousness and sanctification and redemp- 
tion* is already a child and an heir of God. Let 
such a one doubt and fear no more, but say, '^One 
thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see." 
Sometimes the Sun of righteousness rises so grad- 
ually over the gloomy hills of darkness, sometimes 
the dayspring from on high dawns so gradually 
upon the soul, that the saved one can scarcely tell 
when the night ended and the day began. 

But this by the way ; and we come now to the 
parable of the pearl of great price — a parable em- 
ployed to illustrate the anxiety and the earnestness 
with which salvation is sought by many souls. 

Though the Savior came to the pool of Bethesda 
without solicitation, and unasked wrought his mir- 
acle of healing there, yet the Syrophenician woman 
obtained his gracious intervention only after a 
journey to find him, after much entreaty, and after 
seeming rejection and rebuff. We have already 
directed attention to that condition of Syrian soci- 
ety, in the olden time, which often led men to desire 
to turn all their property into coin that they might 
bury it in times of danger, or, as in the text, into a 
pearl or diamond, which was portable and could be 
easily concealed. We may easily conceive of the 
solicitude with which men, in times of uncertainty 
and danger, would seek to turn all their property 
into some small and compact equivalent of perma- 
nent standard value that they might preserve it. 

* I Corinthians i. 30. 



156 



THE PARABLES 



When a man found the object of his search, it is 
easy to see with what glad alacrity he would sell all 
he had to buy it. 

Now this is brought to illustrate the anxiety, 
industry and perseverance with which the awakened 
sinner seeks the treasures of salvation. As in the 
insecurity and anxiety of those times the merchant 
sought to turn his property into a single pearl or 
diamond, so with the awakened sinner in the matter 
of his soul's redemption. Let a man be but truly 
awakened by the Spirit of God to a sense of the 
vanity of the creature, the worth of the soul, its 
guilt and danger, the priceless value of the treasure 
eternal in the heavens, the shortness of life, the 
nearness of death, and the great realities of the 
invisible world ; let him understand what is meant 
by the souFs depravity and sinfulness, God's holi- 
ness, justice and terrible vengeance, his mercy, 
love, compassion and gracious fullness and all-suffi- 
ciency ; what is implied in living under God's wrath 
and curse for time and eternity, on the one hand, 
and being filled with all the fullness of his love and 
blessing for time and eternity, on the other ; let him 
know and realize that he is already lost and helpless 
and utterly ruined, and that unless in some way 
rescued, and that speedily, it is all over with him, 
and that forevermore ; and let him, under all these 
influences, begin in earnest to seek deliverance, 
have his mind enlightened in the knowledge of 
Christ ; let him come to see that in Christ there is 
everything he needs ; that, if he will but receive 
and rest upon him as a Savior, he shall be rescued 



OF THE HID TREASURE AND THE PEARL. 157 

from all he dreads and be instated in the full and 
secure possession of all he desires ; and let him 
know and realize that this Savior is freely offered to 
him — even to such as he — yea, offered to and urged 
upon him, personally and particularly; and with 
what eagerness and joy will he embrace the offer! 

Let the guilt-burdened soul know of the offer of 
a free, full and final pardon ; tell the soul, sensible 
of its utter and desperate ungodliness and spiritual 
maladies, and groaning under them, of Jehovah- 
ropheka, ** the Great Physician— let him know of the 
Savior, whose free grace stands ready to bestow 
justification, adoption and sanctification, together 
with all the inestimable benefits which accompany 
or flow from these, viz: assurance of God's love, 
peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, in- 
crease of grace and perseverance therein to the 
end, the goodness and mercy of God following and 
crowning him all his days, strength, safety and vic- 
tory in the dying hour, immediate admission into 
the beatific presence of God and his Christ in the 
celestial Paradise ; in due time the resurrection of 
the body, a triumphant acquittal and justification in 
the day of judgment, and perfect, ineffable life and 
blessedness in heaven forever — I say let a man, in 
such a frame of mind and heart, be illumined by 
the Holy Spirit into the knowledge of such a Savior, 
and that this Savior in all his fullness may now be 
freely his, and oh with what joy does he close 
in with the gospel call and offer and embrace it, 
saying of Jesus: **Whom have I in heaven but 

* Exodus XV. 26. Jehovah who healeth thee. — Ed. 



158 TEE PARABLES 

thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire 
besides thee;"^' or, with Paul, when renouncing 
everything for Jesus, he exclaims: '*I count all 
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge 
of Christ Jesus my Lord."f 

But there are those who become deeply alarmed, 
and who fear and tremble in view of their guilt and 
danger. Some awakened sinners experience great, 
unutterable distress and terror. Some, under the 
terror inspired by the fear of sin, have become mel- 
ancholy, some have gone mad, and some, unable 
longer to endure their harrowing fears, have, with a 
violent hand, precipitated themselves into that per- 
dition, the mere dread of which made life an insup- 
portable burden. It is well known what gorgeous 
temples men have erected, what splendid sacrifices 
they have offered, and what self-inflicted tortures 
they have endured, for the purpose of appeasing 
the offended Deity. And indeed nothing is more 
reasonable than their fears. For nothing hinders 
their instant and utter and unutterable destruction 
except the sovereign good pleasure of an offended 
God. God is able to destroy tliem, and they deserve 
to be destroyed. They would even fall into ruin 
themselves— body and soul would break out into 
eternal flames, only that God holds them up. God 
is angry with them— angrier than with many who 
are already in hell. Devils are waiting for them — - 
hell wants them— earth is weary of them* If they 
die impenitent, their destruction will be very terri- 
ble. God will take pleasure in their punishment, 

^•'" Psalm Ixxiii, 25. t Philippians iii. 8. 



OF THE WD TREASURE AND THE PEARL, i^g 

and exert his omnipotence in it. In the inspired 
Scriptures there are terrible words employed to 
represent the wrath and vengeance of God in the 
punishment of incorrigible transgressors. Of Jesus, 
It is said : " He treadeth the winepress of the fierce- 
ness and wrath of Almighty God/'^ And again: 
*'I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the 
people there was none with me : for I will tread 
them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury ; 
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my gar- 
ments, and I will stain all my raiment. For the day 
of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my 
redeemed is come."t The fierce indignation and 
terrible punishment thus described are to continue 
forever. It is the eternity of hell that gives to it 
Its terrors. To lay the hand on a burning coal for 
fifteen minutes would be dreadful. To be cast into 
a glowing oven or into a burning limekiln for the 
same length of time would be more dreadful. But 
to dwell in the midst of hot, devouring flames for* 
ever and ever — the very conception of such a pun- 
ishment is overwhelming and terrific. But such is 
the dreadful doom of the lost soul, and the awak- 
ened sinner knows it, and sees it, and realizes it. 
It is brought home with power to his soul. He 
can not get clear of the terrible fear. It haunts 
him. It cleaves to him, like a shadow to its sub- 
stance, like death to sinful men. No wonder he is 
alarmed. His concern is one of the most reason* 
able things in the world. 

Besides all this, there is additional reason for 

*■ Revelation xix. 15. t Isaiah Ixiii. 3, 4. 



1 60 ^^^^ ^^ RABLES 

anxiety on the part of the awakened sinner in the 
value of heaven's glory and happiness, which he is 
in danger of losing. Though he be incapable of 
appreciating the happiness that springs from holi- 
ness and from the favor of God and communion 
with him, he is not altogether indifferent to heaven 
as a place of rest and peace and joy and glory and 
bliss, nor as a place of beauty and riches and splen- 
dor and everlasting pleasure. He is sometimes 
enraptured with the conception of it as a glorious 
city with golden streets and pearly gates and jasper 
walls, lighted up with the glory of God and the 
Lamb, and watered with the pure river of life, clear 
as crystal. When he thinks of these glories and 
riches and pleasures that are at God's right hand 
forevermore, and remembers the miseries and hor- 
rors of eternal perdition, he feels constrained to 
seek salvation as a merchantman in ancient times 
sought for goodly pearls. 

But the merchantman would often have to hunt 
many days, many anxious, weary days, and with 
many alternations of hope and fear, before obtain- 
ing the object of his pursuit. Sometimes worldly 
men seem to be upon the Very point of winning the 
pearl for which they struggle. Just then their most 
finely planned efforts prove abortive. Their hopes 
of years vanish, like a mist of the morning, and 
leave their once buoyant possessors disappointed 
and almost despairing to commence the race anew, 
like Sisyphus doomed of fate to a never-ending, still- 
beginning toil of rolling a round stone up a high 
hill— 



OF THE HID TREASURE AND THE PEARL, idi 

*' With m^ny a weary step and many a groan, 
Up the high hill, he heaves the huge round stone; 
The huge round stone resulting with a bound 
Thunders impetuous down and smokes along the ground." 

So it is with the man who rivets his affection to the 
earth, and builds his hopes on its shifting sands. 
Rarely does he acquire what he seeks, and not until 
after many an hour of weary toil. 

So does it happen with many awakened and seek- 
ing sinners. True, they might come immediately 
to Christ, and rejoice in the instant possession of 
the great soul-satisfying salvation. But for causes 
already noted, many of them do not, but wander in 
counsels of their own. Being ignorant of God's 
righteousness or displeased with it, and going about 
to establish their own righteousness, they attain 
neither the righteousness nor the rest they seek. 

Thus we have discoursed of the two classes rep- 
resented in these two parables, and pointed out 
how the Word and Spirit of God operate in dif- 
ferent ways on different persons. Some come 
speedily, and, as it were, unexpectedly into the 
possession of eternal life. While they are living 
wholly without God and without hope in the world, 
content to be aliens from the commonwealth of 
Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise ; 
while they were worshiping and serving the creat- 
ure more than the Creator, fixing their hopes on 
it instead of on him, God came near in the day 
of his power and the time of his love, and pulled 
them out of the fire and saved them. 

With another class, as we have seen, it is differ- 
14 



1 62 "^HE PARABLES 

ent. They go mourning without the sun. They 
stand up and cry in the congregation. *'They go 
forward, but he is not there; and backward, but 
they can not perceive him.'"^ They know not how 
to find the way into the city. Thus it was for a 
time with Augustine, Bunyan and Luther. 

But whatever diversity there is in the experience 
of these two classes, previous to the time of discov- 
ering the heavenly treasure, still the discovery pro- 
duces the same result in both. They all and with 
like alacrity sell all they have in order to buy what 
they know to be so valuable. The reason why men 
are not Christians is their ignorance of the nature 
and priceless value of the great salvation. The god 
of this world hath blinded the, minds of them who 
believe not, and their understanding is darkened, f 
No matter what may have been the man's previous 
history, or how he has come to the knowledge of 
the truth — if he has by any means come to that 
knowledge; if his eyes are opened to behold and 
his heart to realize the truths of revelation — the sin 
and the misery of men, their doomed and desperate 
condition, the love of God, the grace of Christ, the 
goodness of the Spirit, the fullness and freeness of 
salvation, the horrors of a dark, a burning and an 
everlasting hell, the life and joy and glory without 
measure and without end, of that regal and radiant 
heaven which is reserved for them that know God 
and obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ — I 
say, if a man has come to such a knowledge as thiii, 

* Job xxiii. 8. 

t 2 Corinthians iv. 3. Ephesians iv. 18. 



OF THE HID TREASURE AND THE PEARL. 163 

then will he quickly part with everything to secure 
his eternal salvation. Thenceforward there is to him 
but one thing needful. Thenceforward he will count 
all things but loss and veriest ordure that he may be 
found in Christ, not *' Having his own righteousness, 
which is of the law, but that which is through the 
faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God 
by faith."* He will forsake sinful pleasures. He 
rises above earthly hopes and aims, and becomes a 
pilgrim indeed. Hitherto he had all his hopes and 
aims here. They were of the earth, earthy. But 
now, like the Prodigal, he has come to himself and 
knows that he has been attempting to fill himself 
with husks; and, bitterly repenting, he goes and 
returns to his Father's house. He renounces his 
own will and way, and resigns himself to the will 
and the guidance of God. 

* Philippians iii. 9. 



1 64 THE PARABLE 



-- SERMON VIII. 
The Parable of the Net. 

MATTHEW XIII. 47-5O. 



The seine or drag-net (Greek, sagcne; Latin, 
verriculum) is the largest kind of fishing-net, some- 
times half a mile long. It is not used in deep, but 
shoal waters. It is leaded at the bottom to sink it, 
and buoyed with cork or other light substance at 
the top to float it. One end is fastened at the shore, 
and with the other the fishers sweep around, as far 
out in the sea as possible, until they bring the whole 
net with its contents to the shore. Nothing being 
able to escape through the aet, or over it, or under 
it, all that it incloses is of course hauled out on the 
beach — fish, good and bad, living and dead, sea- 
weed, floating things, and even poisonous reptiles, 
that in some places inhabit the bottom of the sea. 
There would likewise many fish be brought to land 
that by the Jewish law were unclean; even all those 
destitute of fins and scales, and these, of course, 
would be rejected as worthless.* The net being 

'^ Leviticus xi. 9-1 1. 



OF THE NET. 



165 



drawn to the shore, the fishermen sit down, and 
leisurely discriminate between the fish. The clean 
and good they gather into vessels, and cast the bad 
(Greek, sapra), dead, decayed, poisonous, worth- 
less and unclean away. They throw them back 
into the sea, or fling them upon the shore to rot, 
or to become a prey to the. birds of heaven. This 
picture of the gospel dispensation was one which 
would be appreciated by several of the disciples, 
being drawn from their daily avocation. 

This parable is in some points similar to that of 
the tares and the wheat. In both we have an 
intermixture of the good and bad, their separation 
by the angels at the end of the world, and the final 
allotment of each. Probably in the latter the em- 
phasis is laid on the mixture of good and bad in the 
Church, and in the former on their separation, and 
the punishment of the wicked. 

We now proceed to the interpretation of this par- 
able of the net. 

I. We observe, in the first place, that the net 
symbolizes the Church as an institution of grace. 
The net was very large, reaching far and sweeping all 
before it. So the Church, already vastly extended, 
shall ultimately be coextensive with the habitable 
world. We may, however, consider the fishers as 
representing the preachers and the net the preach- 
ing of the gospel. The gospel is a net let down to 
catch men and draw them out of the abyss of igno- 
rance, error and sin in which they live. It is cast 
into the sea. The sea is the world of mankind, the 
human race. The gospel net is no more, as under 



1 66 THE PARABLE 

the Mosaic economy, to be cast into one stream, 
but into the world-embracing sea. The everlasting 
gospel of the kingdom is to be preached among all 
nations. All people are to hear it. All nations are 
to be affected by it. It is to gather, in its ample 
sweep, some out of every tongue and every tribe 
and kindred and people into the kingdom of glory. 
Such is the prophecy of this parable, and for eight- 
een hundred years, the all-working hand of Prov- 
idence has been fulfilling the prediction, and is 
now more than ever fulfilling it. Wider and wider 
spreads the gospel, year by year, among the nations, 
until at length it is reaching and encircling all. 
Already has it reached and spread, in forms more 
or less pure, all over the Western hemisphere, 
which was unknown to science at the time the par- 
able and its prophecy were uttered. Our hills and 
plains, our mountains and forests, from the snow- 
clad coasts of Greenland to the wave-washed capes 
of Patagonia, from the harbors of the Atlantic 
to the golden coasts of the Pacific, the whole 
hemisphere is dotted with churches and vocal 
with the hymns and hallelujahs of redemption. 
Europe, too, then an almost barbarous and a wholly 
pagan country, has cast its Thors and its Wodens, 
its Jupiter and Mars and Juno and Venus, to the 
moles and bats, and now salutes the cross of Cal- 
vary as the symbol of salvation. And long op- 
posed and long repressed, the watchfires of Zion's 
armies are again rekindled on the fields of Asia. 
Brightly they burn on the hills of Palestine, in the 
valleys of Mesopotamia, on the mountains of Per- 



OF THE NET. 1 67 

sia, on the lowlands of Hindostan, on the coasts 
of China, and on the isles of the sea. From the 
gates of Constantinople to the Chinese Wall, from 
the eternal ice of Siberia to the shores of the Indian 
Ocean, is the gospel speedily, broadly and suc- 
cessfully going forth, conquering and to conquer, 
through all that dark land, teeming with millions 
of benighted men. 

Australia, a terra incognita in the Savior's day, 
and a continent in itself, is securely inclosed in the 
gospel net. So also are many scores and groups 
of islands in the sunny Pacific ; and every year con- 
tinues to swell the spread and triumphs of the gos- 
pel. Every year swells the list of those martyr 
heroes, honored in heaven, who labor as mission- 
aries among those cannibal savages, and every year 
demonstrates more and more conclusively that all 
Polynesia is to be speedily inclosed w^ithin the 
meshes of the gospel net and drawn into the pale 
of Christian civilization. 

Africa, too, is stretching out her hands to God. 
Already are her sable coasts girded with a zone 
of gospel light. Liberia and Sierra Leone, Mada- 
gascar and the Cape of Good Hope, Egypt and the 
Barbary States, and many places in the interior — 
the gospel is invading them all. Our net is cast 
abroad through all the sea. 

2. The figure in our text is one often employed 
in the Scriptures. The apostles and preachers are 
again and again called fishers of men. Both Jere- 
miah and Ezekiel employ the same figure to repre- 
-sent the triumphs of the gospel, the restoration and 



1 68 THE PARABLE 

conversion of Israel's scattered tribes, and the in- 
gathering of souls at the commencement of mil- 
lennial times. ^ 

2. The figure of the text is an apposite and ex- 
pressive one. For as the net, in its sweep through 
the sea, ''gathers of every kind'' — the good, and 
also the bad, the putrid, the worthless and the un- 
clean — so the gospel gathers into the Church both 
converted and unconverted men. It employs mo- 
tives, arguments and considerations which power- 
fully address themselves to mankind, and by which 
many are outwardly influenced, who are never 
inwardly changed. To the marriage feast the ser- 
vants gather all, as many as they can find, ''both 
bad and good, "f The good seed is sown, but the 
tares spring up with the wheat and grow with it 
until the time of harvest. J There always has been 
a mixture of the bad and good in the Church. It 
is not possible by human wisdom and power to pre- 
vent it. Church officers can not judge the heart, 
nor discern the spirits of men. They can look only 
on the outward appearance. 

The time for the final discrimination is not yet. 
The attempt to have a perfect Church is vain. It 
can never succeed. The hills of Zion always have 
been a mingled field of wheat and tares, and will 
never be anything else until after Christ's second 
coming. There was a Ham in the ark, an Ishmael 
in the family of Abraham, a Korah with the Church 
in the wilderness, a Gehazi in the family of Elisha, a 



*■ Jeremiah xvi. i6. Ezekiel xlvii. lo. 

t Matthew xxii, lo. % Matthew xiii. 30. 



OF THE NET. 



169 



Judas among the apostles of Christ, and an Elymas 
and a Demas, and other heretics and hypocrites, in 
the churches of apostoHc planting and of pentecostal 
life and power ; and ever since many have been in 
the Church who were not of it — many plants in the 
fields of Zion which our Heavenly Father never 
planted — many barren branches in Christ which 
shall be broken off and gathered to be burned — 
many within the fold who entered not by Christ the 
door, but climbed up some other way — many who 
will go to the judgment, pleading with earnestness 
their, connection and communion with the Church, 
saying, ''Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in 
thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? 
and in thy name done many wonderful works ?" but 
to whom the Judge will say, ''I never knew you : 
depart from me, ye that work iniquity/"^ 

Then let no one be offended at the visible Church 
because of the imperfections of some or even of 
many of them. Those things must needs be. They 
were foreseen and foretold by the Church's Head. 
Therefore let no one refuse his fellowship on account 
of them. Be not disturbed because you suspect an 
unworthy man or woman sits beside you at the 
communion table, for you may be mistaken. Per- 
haps he is a better man than you suppose. Perhaps 
he stands fairer in God's sight than he does in 
yours — perhaps fairer than you. But if indeed he 
is as bad as you judge, or even worse, be not driven 
away, be not alienated. His unworthiness affects 
only himself. His sitting unworthily at the com- 

'=' Matthew vii. 22, 23. 



jyo 



THE PARABLE 



munion tabic does not cut off the children's right to 
eat their Father's bread, and to eat it quietly, 
cheerfully, and with an assurance of welcome. But 
if we must have a perfect Church, we must be out 
of the Church on earth. If we will tolerate only a 
perfect communion, then we can have no com- 
munion this side of heaven. 

True, the ideal of the Church is perfection, and 
to this she tends. She is continually purging her- 
self of those who are known and notorious sinners. 
But in regard to this she has received many a warn- 
ing to be careful lest in plucking up the tares, she 
should root up the wheat also. It is better that 
many doubtful persons should be tolerated through 
charity than that one of God's children should be 
unjustly excluded from his Father's house. And 
that man, or body of men, whether it be pope, 
conclave, assembly, conference, synod or session, 
that assumes to exclude those whom Jesus has 
received, takes too much upon them. They lord 
it, with an impious hand, over God's heritage. 
They sit as God in the temple of God, showing 
themselves that they are God, Wherever the gos- 
pel is preached, and men make **a credible pro- 
fession of faith in Christ and of obedience unto 
him," they are to be received in all charity as 
brethren in Christ. If some of them are unworthy 
— are in reality unrenewed — but have not such open 
blemishes as are absolutely incompatible with Chris- 
tian character, still they are to be borne with. The 
'riv of strict and final discrimination is not yet. 
Nor are ministers to be the arbiters in such cases. 



OF THE NET. I7I 

These men are to be left to the judgment of God. 
They are drifting on to those eternal shores, where 
the good shall be gathered into vessels and the bad 
be cast away. Until then let us wait. Let us also 
guard against making terms of communion which 
God never made, and shrink from it as from shock- 
ing impiety. Let us remember that the Lord is 
our Judge, King and Lawgiver. 

Nor is the imperfection of Christian professors 
any argument against the truth of Christianity. 
Christianity does not make men imperfect. It finds 
them so, and as far as it brings them under its 
influence, it makes them better, transforming them 
from one degree of holiness to another continually. 
It finds them immersed in the darkness of ignorance 
and sin, and makes their path like the shining light 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. 
It finds them led and driven by fierce and rest- 
less passions, and it curbs and subdues them, and 
transfers their attachments from low and unworthy 
objects to those which are high and holy and sub- 
lime and eternal. It finds one a drunkard, and 
sobers him ; another a debauchee, and purifies him. 
It finds one an earthworm, and ennobles him, and 
another dishonest, and makes him upright. And 
now because it does not complete its whole work in 
an instant, but carries on its renovating and redeem- 
ing processes gradually, and in accordance with the 
known laws of our nature, is this a reason for re- 
jecting it? Or, because some men profess it, who 
do so in bad faith, and do never in very truth yield 
themselves up, heart and soul, to be guided and 



172 



THE PARABLE 



molded by its influences, and so are never morally 
improved by them, is this a. reason for infidelity? 
*'For what if .some did not believe? shall their 
unbelief make the faith of God without effect? ^*^ 
What ! the imperfection of Christians and the un- 
worthiness of false professors a ground for rejecting 
the Christian Church and the Christian religion? 
This very imperfection was predicted by the great 
Author of salvation, and rightly considered is a 
strong argument to prove that this religion is from 
heaven. It must be from heaven, or the frailty and 
the follies of men would have destroyed it long ago. 
Those frailties and follies have destroyed states and 
ruined empires. They have turned cities into soli- 
tudes and fat lands to barrenness. They have 
broken to shivers all the proudest monuments of 
human genius and greatness. State after state, em- 
pire after empire, has risen, flourished and fallen. 
History records their greatness, and also the follies 
and crimes by which they were ruined. Innumer- 
able forms of religion and systems of philosophy 
have sprung into being and risen into greatness, and 
vanished into smoke. No human institution, no 
system, no civilization, has ever yet been able to 
stand against the follies, the corruptions, and the 
crimes of men. The Church alone lives. The 
Jerusalem of God only is immortal. There she 
stands, old as Paradise ; fresh as youth ; immortal 
as God, and strong as the pillars of heaven. Em- 
bracing both hemispheres, one foot on either pole, 
her height reaching to heaven, her sight to the ends 

* Romans iii. 3, 



OF THE NET, 



173 



of the earth, she lives, she stands, she grows. She 
has outweathered the storms of six thousand years, 
and Hke the unyielding arch has grown stronger by 
the weight that has sought to crush her. No 
internal follies, crimes, treasons and perjuries ; no 
external craft, hate and deadly war, have ever been 
able to effect a deadly breach in her walls. While 
revolution or crime has in time swept away every- 
thing human, like chaff before the whirlwind, into 
the deep vortex of destruction, the Church, like an 
immovable mountain, still stands proudly erect, and 
defies the storm. Never was she so strong, so 
pure, so great, so progressive, so victorious, as at 
the present moment. Never ! Never did she yield 
so mighty or so wide an influence as to-day. Never 
was she so strong in the respect and affections of 
men, in the general intelligence, purity, integrity 
and public spirit of her members, or in the extent^ 
variety and efficacy of her resources as at this very 
time. Zion, after a sleep of ages, has arisen, 
shaken herself from the dust, and shines. The 
nations see her from afar. Kings come to her 
light, and queens to the brightness of her rising. 
Now why is Zion thus immortal? Why is she 
alone of all human things immortal? Why have 
the causes which have destroyed all other institu- 
tions not injured her? Why, like the three holy 
children, does she walk unscathed in the midst of 
the fires ? Why, like the ark, is she able to outride 
the deluge and defy the storm ? Why can she 
laugh at those moral convulsions which rock the 
world like an earthquake and swallow up all human 



174 



THE PARABLE 



institutions? It is because she is from heaven, and 
because she is sustained by Jehovah's almighty arm. 

*« God is our refuge and our strength, 
In straits a present aid. 
And therefore though the earth remove, 
We will not be afraid — 

** Though hills amidst the seas be cast; 
Though waters roaring make, 
And troubled be ; yea, though the hills 
By swelling seas do shake — 

** A river is whose streams make glad 
The city of our God; 
The holy place wherein the Lord 
Most High hath his abode. 

*< God in the midst of her doth dwell, 
And nothing shall her move ; 
God also very early will 
To her a helper prove."* 

4. But the Church, though imperfect, containing 
both behevers and unbehevers, saints and sinners, 
will not be imperfect always. When the gospel 
net is full, it will be drawn to the shore. When 
the scheme of redemption is consummated, then 
shall the present economy of 'grace come to an end. 
The heavens shall vanish. The trumpet shall sound. 
The living shall be changed, and the dead raised. 
Our glorious Jesus will come in glory, and all the 
holy angels with him, and he will send his angels 
to gather the good home to heaven and to cast the 
bad away. 

(i.) That there will be a day of general judg- 
ment — of discrimination between the righteous and 

* Psalm xlvi. 



OF THE NET, 



175 



the wicked — the Holy Word permits usmot to doubt. 
*' Because God hath appointed a day, in which he 
will judge the world in righteousness by that man 
whom he hath ordained ; w^hereof he hath given 
assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him 
from the dead. "^ And again : ''The hour is com- 
ing in which all that are in the graves shall hear his 
voice, and shall come forth ; they that have done 
good, unto the resurrection of life, and they that 
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damna- 
tion, "f See also Revelation xx. 12, 13. Matthew 
XXV. 31-46. 

(2.) But why spend time on a point so plain? I 
proceed to remark that the holy angels will act as 
God's ministers in the final separation of the right- 
eous from the wicked. Our text declares that ''at 
the end of the world, the angels shall come forth, 
and sever the wicked from among the just, and 
shall cast them into the furnace of fire ; there shall 
be wailing and gnashing of teeth," See also Mat- 
thew XXV. 41. Awful separation, and awful casting 
away ! Strange scenes shall be witnessed on that 
day. Many shall be gathered home to heaven, 
whom we had hardly expected to meet there; and 
many shall be cast away of whom we had con- 
fidently expected better things. The secrets of all 
hearts shall be revealed. Hearts and souls shall be 
turned inside out, and be exposed to the gaze of the 
whole universe. Some of us, of whom others stood 
in doubt, shall be shown, notwithstanding all our 
many and grievous infirmities to have really and 



**" Acts xvii. 31. t John v, 28, 29. 



1/6 



THE PARABLE 



truly exercised repentance toward God and faith 
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And I tremble to 
think that some of us, of whom we are all thinking 
better things, may then be found destitute of inward 
grace, and so come short of the heavenly glory and 
be cast away. 

After the separation shall have been made, the 
good, that is, Christians, true believers, shall be 
gathered home to heaven to dwell with God and 
Christ and the holy angels forever and ever. But 
the bad, unbelievers, the impenitent, shall be cast 
away from all the means of grace, from all hopes 
of salvation, from all the pleasures of time, from 
God, from peace, rest, and hope. *'And these shall 
go away into everlasting punishment, but the right- 
eous into life eternal."^ 

But I must hasten to the conclusion of this dis- 
course. 

And is it indeed true that many, who are taken 
by the gospel net and gathered within its folds, 
shall be cast away at last? Is it probable, or even 
possible, that some of us — of us who are so highly 
favored — who have witnessed a good profession 
before many witnesses, who have been church- 
members for months, or even years, who have been 
washed with the sacred waters of baptism, who 
have eaten the sacramental bread, who have been- 
fed on manna from heaven, who have sat in the 
same house and in the same pews with the heirs of 
salvation, have had the same teaching, heard the 
same offers, and listened to the same entreaties as 



•'•' Matthew xxv. 46. 



OF THE NET, 177 

they — is it probable, or even possible, that some of 
us, who have been thus favored, shall be cast away 
at last? Is it probable, or even possible, that all our 
glorious light is to go out in everlasting darkness, 
all our pleasures to be exchanged for everlasting 
agonies, all our bright hopes to be swallowed in the 
abyss of deep and endless despair? Shall all our 
Sabbaths and sermons and sacraments, all our pray- 
ers and praises and sweet communing, so soon 
and so bitterly end forever? My friends, the bare 
thought of this as possible should fill you with a 
holy alarm and horror. You should carefully and 
prayerfully examine into the foundation of your 
hopes — you should examine and prove yourselves 
whether you be in the faith — you should know of 
a surety whether Jesus Christ be formed in you the 
hope of glory, lest in the end you be found to be 
reprobates. Let your hopes of heaven rest on no 
doubtful foundation. Make your calling and elec- 
tion sure. Do not lie supinely and sing the syren 
song of peace to lull the soul into a fatal torpor 
from which the dark-winged angel of death shall 
fearfully and finally arouse it. Rest not until you 
are able to say, with Paul: **I know whom I have 
believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep 
that which I have committed unto him against that 
day;"* or, with Job: *^I know that my Redeemer 
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon 
the earth ; and though after my skin worms de- 
stroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."f 
It is not too much to say that many are now in 

* 2 Timothy i. 12. t Job xix. 25, 26. 



178 



THE PARABLE 



hell because they rested in a false hope and refused 
to examine it, or to be alarmed out of it. And so 
it will be with you, if you build upon a sandy 
foundation. You may close your ears against this 
friendly warning and sleep on, but not forever. The 
time hurries, when '*the sinners in Zion shall be 
afraid, when fearfulness shall surprise the hypo- 
crites. Who among tis shall dwell with devouring 
fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting 
burnings?"* Awful change from earth to hell; 
from the songs of the sanctuary to the groans and 
howling of the pit; from hopes of heaven to blank 
and bottomless despair ; from the cheerful light of 
heaven to outer darkness, and to w^ailing and gnash- 
ing of teeth. 

But why do I interpret this parable as if it 
referred only to the members of the Church? I 
doubt not it includes all who live in gospel lands, 
all to whom the gospel comes. To whomsoever 
the word of life comes, it lays hold of him with 
an awful and an everlasting power. He can never 
shake himself loose from its influence. He can 
never be the same man, be, in the same condi- 
tion, or have the same prospects as before. *'For 
we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them 
that are saved, and in them that perish: to the 
one we are the savor of death unto death ; and 
to the other the savor of life unto life. ''f The 
same sermon that brings conviction, conversion, 
life, light and joy to the soul of one, hardens 
and darkens the heart of another, deepens the pit 

* Isaiah xxxiii. 14. t 2 Corinthians ii. 15, 16. 



OF THE NET. 



179 



for him, and shuts him up more inevitably to utter 
destruction. '^Foras the rain cometh down, and 
the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, 
but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth 
and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and 
bread to the eater : so shall my word be that goeth 
forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me 
void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, 
and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent 
it/'* The gospel net has been cast forth upon all 
the people of this audience, of this community, of 
this country. It has laid hold upon them all with 
an invisible and deathless power. It is silently, 
but surely, molding their character and destiny for 
eternity. It is swjftly and irresistibly dragging 
them on to judgment. '* Whether for good or 
for evil — whether for acquittal or condemnation— 
whether to be gathered among the pure in heaven, 
or cast among the guilty in hell, they can not for 
an instant arrest their progress to the judgment 
toward which they are being carried from the first 
moment the offer of salvation in the gospel was 
made them.'' 

How different the condition and destiny of the 
two classes inclosed in the gospel net! The one 
good, the other bad ; the one heirs of glory, honor, 
immortality, eternal life, the other of indignation 
and wrath, tribulation and anguish ; the one gath- 
ered by the angels into their everlasting heavenly 
home, the other cast into the furnace of fire, where 
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 

-*■ Isaiah 1 v. 10, 11. '^ 



l8o THE PARABLE 



SERMON IX. 
The Parable of the Unforgiving 

lNT. 



Sei\yai 



MATTHEW XVIII. 23-35. 



In the preceding verses, Jesus had been discours- 
ing of the way in which we should deal with offend- 
ers, and the kindness and leniency which should be 
shown to weak and erring brethren. To forgive a 
personal wrong was confessedly a duty, but it seems 
there was a controversy among the Jewish sects in 
relation to the question, how often we ought to 
forgive, upon profession of repentance, an erring 
brother? The Jewish Rabbins are said to have 
decided the question thus: that three trangressions 
are to be forgiven, but not the fourth ; and this they 
attempted to prove by referring to Amos i. 3. Peter 
put the numbers three and four together, or perhaps 
some of the Rabbins did, and asked whether we are 
to forgive until seven times; or perhaps he inferred 
from Proverbs xxiv. 16, that we ought to forgive 
seven times. Our Savior in his answer to Peter's 



OF THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT, igi 

question (verse 22) intimates that we arc always to 
forgive— that there is no amount of personal wrong 
which can be done unto us, which we are not to 
forgive ; and that if we will be his disciples we are 
not to cherish or indulge a proud, revengeful, un- 
compromising or implacable disposition ; but that, 
on the contrary, we are as far as possible to live at 
peace with all men — that if they will war with us, 
we are not to war with them, nor return railing for 
railing, wrong for wrong, injury for injury, but to 
cherish and cultivate the lovely graces of meekness 
and gentleness and patience and long-suffering ; and 
that we must, even under provocation, love our 
enemies. 

But as this was a lesson which was contrary to all 
the propensities of their vitiated nature, and to all 
the teachings which they had received from infancy, 
and to the maxims and principles of the whole 
world; and as it was absolutely essential for men 
to learn to practice it in order to entitle them to 
the character and standing of discipleship, our Lord 
proceeds to explain and enforce the duty by the 
parable under consideration. 

I. We have Jirst the literal sense. A king is 
represented as calling his agents and officers to a 
settlement, and one of them is found to be delin- 
quent to a very great amount — ten thousand talents, 
about fifteen millions of dollars. (Verse 24. ) But 
he, having nothing to pay, his lord, according to the 
custom of some Oriental countries, commanded that 
he, his wife, children, and all that he had, should be 
sold, and payment to be made. But at the entreaty 



1 82 THE PARABLE 

of the defaulter, his debt is forgiven, and he is set 
at hberty. But afterward, by refusing to forgive 
his fellow-servant a paltry debt of a hundred pence, 
about fifteen dollars, and dealing harshly and cru- 
elly with the poor debtor, he incurs his master's 
displeasure, and is delivered to the tormentors till 
he should pay the entire debt. 

2. Let us now look into the spiritual sense of the 
parable. 

The administration of the government of the 
spiritual kingdom, the visible Church, by our Lord 
Jesus Christ, the only King and Head thereof, is 
declared to be similar to this. **The king'* (verse 
23) represents our Savior, the only king, head, judge, 
lawgiver and governor of the Church. The king 
calling his servants to account represents the Lord 
Jesus, as the king and judge of his people, calling 
them to account. The large amount which the 
defaulter owed (about fifteen millions of dollars) 
represents the number and magnitude of our sins. 
Sin is often compared to a debt. Luke vii. 41-48. 
Matthew vi. 12. The number and value of the 
talents (ten thousand) represent the number and 
greatness of our sins. Not only are our sins very 
numerous, but each sin is very great, * Reserving 
God's wrath and curse, both in this life and in that 
which is to come." The defaulter was delinquent 
to the king for six hundred thousand"^ times as 

* So reads the MS. of Dr. D. But as he gives the value of ten 
thousand talents as about fifteen millions of dollars, and as the 
penny (denarius) was worth only about fifteen cents, the defaulter 
was delinquent to the king for fifteen thousand times as much as 
his fellow-servant was indebted to him. — Ed. 



OF THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT. 183 

much as his fellow-servant was indebted to him, by 
which is intimated that the wrongs which our fellow- 
men do to us, great and outrageous as they some- 
times are, bear no proportion to the wrongs which 
we commit against God. We can wrong our fellow- 
men only in proportion to the extent of the claim 
which they have on us. The wrong done is always 
in proportion to the magnitude and perfection of 
the claim which we violate. Thus parents or bene- 
factors have a much stronger claim upon our grate- 
ful regards than a stranger or an enemy, and to 
treat them injuriously would be a much greater sin. 
Every sin is great just in proportion to the great- 
ness of obligation resting upon us not to perpetuate 
it. Now as the claims which God has upon our 
obedience and regards are great just in proportion 
to the greatness of his authority and perfections 
and benefactions, and as each of these is infinite, it 
follows that there is a triple infinity of claim on 
God's part and of obligation on ours. Hence to 
violate our obligations to God by sinning against 
his authority, perfections and goodness is to rend 
asunder a threefold cord of infinite obligation, and 
has, therefore, a threefold iniquity of demerit. Well, 
therefore, is it compared in this parable to an 
astounding and hopeless debt which can never be 
paid. 

The inability of the servant to pay his enormous 
debt, and the slavery of himself and family, together 
w^ith the confiscation of his goods, represent the 
strictness of the law and justice of God, and the 
utter inability of men to make satisfaction for their 



1 84 ' THE PARABLE 

many and great sins. In the hour of conviction, 
when his many and great sins are placed before him, 
in all their dark and hideous deformity, reduced to 
despair and made fully sensible of his utter inability 
to appease the offended law and justice of God, the 
sinner smites upon his breast and cries, *'God be 
merciful to me a sinner/"^ He has nothing to 
plead but mercy — free, gracious forgiveness, for 
Jesus' sake. He feels that he never can pay the 
debt — that he never can make satisfaction for his 
sins, and therefore says, ^'O Lord, enter not into 
judgment with thy servant. "f But som.e there are, 
and I fear many, w^ho never have had conviction 
reach the height which we have just now described. 
They have felt themselves to be sinners, and, it may 
be, too, very great sinners, but still their convictions 
have not led them totally to despair of securing the 
divine favor through their own righteousness. They 
feel that the case is bad with them, but not hopeless. 
They flatter themselves that by diligence in time to 
come, they will be able to reconcile themselves to 
their offended Lord, and that he will be pleased, for 
the sake of their present performance of wearisome 
works and duties, to pardon their past delinquen- 
cies. J Notwithstanding their error is radical and 
great, they congratulate themselves on their efforts 
and success. It would be an exceedingly ungracious 
and utterly hopeless task to convince them of their 
mistake and danger. Generally such persons pursue 
their course of legal endeavor and pride, until the 

■-•- Luke xviii. 13. t Psalm cxliii. 2. 
% Romans x. 2-10. 



OF THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT. 



185 



day of judgment shows them that by the deeds of 
the law shall no flesh be justified. 

But although it is very difficult to convince the 
legalist of the impossibility of salvation by human 
merit, and that his hopes are delusive and vain, still 
it is not very difficult to detect the man himself. 
Usually it happens that the experienced child of 
God can detect that in his life, which is contrary to 
the reality and purity of Christian character ; and, 
perhaps, in nothing more readily than in the harsh- 
ness and censoriousness of his judgments concern- 
ing others, and in his vindictive and revengeful 
conduct — in his long retaining the recollection of 
injuries, real or imagined, and in the many acts of 
unkindness and pharisaical arrogance which he un- 
mercifully perpetrates against weak Christians, who 
through the manifold infirmities which unhappily 
encompass them, have been led at some particular 
time, or perhaps repeatedly, to do them wrong. It 
is precisely such a character that is sketched in 
verses 26-30. He was convinced of sin, but not so 
convinced but that he thought he could relieve him- 
self. ** Have patience with me, and I will pay thee 
all,'' His convictions are very deep and his distress 
very great. He prays — overwhelmed with grief and 
fear — he falls down and prays. But still he expects 
to pay all the debt. Here is no such prayer as that 
of the justified publican — ^*Lord, be merciful to 
me a sinner,'* but, **Lord, have patience.'* And as 
God often in Scripture speaks of men as if they 
were what they profess to be, or suppose themselves 
to be, he speaks of this man as if he were already 
16 



1 86 "THE PARABLE 

forgiven, not because he really was forgiven, but 
just as he calls the polluted Jerusalem the holy 
city, even after it was stained with the blood of the 
Son of God, not because it really was a holy city, 
but because it professed and supposed itself to be 
such. The passage viewed in this light affords not 
the slightest ground to the doctrine of a conditional 
pardon, as some have hastily supposed. God speaks 
of the sinner in the parable as pardoned, because 
those who are what he professed and for a time 
seemed to be, are pardoned, and because he sup- 
posed himself to be so. 

Verse 31. We are here taught that the harsh, 
overbearing, untender conduct of the nominal pro- 
fessor is cause of much grief to the pious, and that 
they go to God in earnest and hearty prayer, and 
complain of the dishonor done to the gospel. 

Verses 32-35. We here learn that men will be 
dealt with, not according to their profession, nor 
according to what they suppose themselves to be, 
but according to their works. Especially are we 
here taught that the fault-finding and censorious and 
malicious and unforgiving and^ ungracious, who are 
exacting and hard with the poor and distressed, or 
with weak and halting Christians, who have offended 
them, will not themselves be forgiven that infinitely 
greater debt which is charged against them in the 
book of God's" remembrance; but they shall be 
exactly and severely dealt with ; that they shall be 
meted with their own measure and judged after 
their own manner; that the cup which they have 
filled for others shall be filled to them double, and 



OF THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT, 187 

that they shall be delivered over to the tormentors, 
and be led away to the prison of hell, and kept there 
until they have paid all the debt. 

''So likewise'* (says the Savior) ''shall my heav- 
enly Father do also unto you, if ye from your 
hearts forgive not every one his brother their tres- 
passes/' 

Now, my friends, are there none of us who need 
to learn and to lay to heart the lesson of this day ? 
Is there among the professors before me all that 
amenity and urbanity, all that kindness and confi- 
dence, all that warm and full flow of affection which 
IS so essential to Christian character? Are we all 
subject to one another, each esteeming the other 
better than himself? Is it indeed so that each in 
love prefers the other, and is each one ready, if 
called to it, to lay down his life for the brethren ? 
Is there no want of confidence or affection in the 
bosom of any of you? Is there no one who, Dio- 
trephes-like, would rejoice to have the pre-eminence 
among his brethren? Is there no haughty and 
supercilious contempt for the judgment and feelings 
of others who differ from you ? Is there no dis- 
position to be exacting and rigid when you have 
received what you are pleased to construe into a 
personal insult or injury? 

Once more : I think this parable is calculated to 
impress the mind with the importance of obtaining 
an interest in Christ Jesus. Everything about it, I 
think, points to this end, though its special design 
is to warn us against the danger of an irascible, im- 
placable, unforgiving temper. What else shall we 



1 88 "^liE PARABLE 

infer from the immensity of the debt, the wrath of 
the king, and the fearful imagery of the thirty-fourth 
verse, which almost makes one stand still and hold 
his breath to read it. ''And his lord was wroth, and 
delivered him over to the tormentors, till he should 
pay all that was due unto him/' It is said in the 
preceding verses that he owed an immense sum, and 
had nothing with which to pay it. It was impos- 
sible that he should pay the debt with nothing. 
Yet he is delivered over to the tormentors until he 
should perform this impossibility; that is, he was 
doomed to be tormented forever. Thus it is shown 
that Universalism is a horrible cheat, and the ever- 
lasting destruction of impenitent sinners an awful 
reality. Awful, I say, if we consider who these 
tormentors are and the eternity of their inflictions. 
For if there is fierceness in the hungry, deathless 
worm which wraps its shining coils in the utmost 
core of the writhing soul and gnaws with insatiate 
fury forever at its bleeding, quivering life-strings — 
if there is heat in the molten center of that lake of 
liquid fire, which, maddened by the adverse fury of 
ten thousand storms, tosses and whirls the cindered 
soul upon its boiling bosom, now burying it deep 
beneath, now dashing it aloft against hell's dark and 
brazen concave, only that it may recoil in a deeper 
plunge and be hurled up with a more crushing dash 
than before — if there be madness of misery in the 
clashing chains and gnashing fangs and iron jaws 
and bursting groans, and loud, ceaseless, infernal 
yells of devils and spirits damned, as they grasp and 
tear and batten on ''the debtor doomed" — or if 



OF THE UNFORGIVING SERVANT. 189 

there be strength in the great arm of the almighty 
justice of the wrathful King; then, the destruction 
of the doomed debtor, the impenitent sinner, is an 
awful reality, from which, I pray God, of his abund- 
ant mercy, for Jesus' sake, to save me and all who 
hear me. 



190 



THE PARABLE 



SERMON X. 
The Parable of the L/Aborers in 

THE VlNEYAF^p. 
MATTHEW XX. I-16. 



This, with the exception of the parable of the 
unjust steward, is the most difficult of all the para- 
bles of the New Testament. It is intimately con- 
nected with the preceding context. This connection 
is expressed by the word **for" of the first verse. A 
young man had come to the Savior, inquiring what 
he must do that he might have eternal life. The 
Savior tries him and proves to him, and to all, that 
he was not sufficiently in earnest. From this inci- 
dent the Savior points out the dangers of wealth. 
Chapter xix. 16-26. Peter seeing the young man's 
failure, and contrasting his own history with that 
of the young man, rejoiced inwardly at the differ- 
ence, and exclaimed: '* Behold, Vv^e have forsaken 
all, and followed thee ; what shall we have there- 
fore?" The feeling in Peter's mind was nearly allied 
to pride, vanity, ambition, and self-righteousness. 
He asked the question, being persuaded of the 



( 



OF THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 



191 



\ 



merit of himself and his confreres. The Savior 
graciously overlooks what was wrong in the spirit 
of the question, and gives assurance to him, and to 
all, of abundant recompense — a recompense abund- 
ant even in this life, but especially abundant in the 
life to come. Men and brethren, we serve a good 
Master. No one ever lost anything by cleaving to 
God. It is by departing from him that we lose all. 

But there was a wrong and dangerous spirit mani- 
fested in Peter's question — a spirit of pride, vanity, 
ambition, and self-righteousness. To reprove this, 
and to rid Peter and all the disciples of it, he 
adds the caution contained in the thirtieth verse : 
*'But many that are first shall be last; and the last 
shall be first.'' The first word of this sentence, 
the adversative conjunction, indicates that there is 
another view to be taken of this matter. This view 
is illustrated and enforced in the parable of the 
laborers in the vineyard. 

The doctrine of this parable is, that the rewards 
of heaven are of grace, not of debt; are a gift, not 
an obligation. God is a debtor to no man. It fur- 
ther teaches that in the bestowment of his favors 
God acts in an absolutely sovereign way. He 
divides to every man severally as he will — does that 
which is well pleasing in his own sight, and gives no 
account of his matters to any one. Further, still, 
the parable makes it evident that he \^ justified in so 
doing, and that no creature has any right to com- 
plain. 

EXPOSITION. 

I. ''The vineyard " is the Church. Psalm Ixxx. 



192 



THE PARABLE 



Isaiah v. Matthew xxi. **The householder'^ is 
God. He is the great owner of all — the great 
Father of whom the whole family in heaven and 
earth is called. He has a great work to do in our 
hearts, in the Church, and in the world; and in the 
accomplishment of it he employs many servants. 
He employs them, not because he needs them, not 
because they in any way facilitate the attainment 
of his ultimate purpose. He could convert all 
nations, edify the Church, sanctify all saints, de- 
stroy Satan and all his works, by the omnipotent 
breathing of his mouth, and as well without our 
aid as with it. But it is in accordance with his w^is- 
dom to employ us as instruments, and he has made 
it for our profit. 

2. *'The laborers '' are apostles, ministers, offi- 
cers, and all Christians. For we are all a kingdom 
of priests, i Corinthians xv. 8-1 1. Acts xx. 20-28. 
I Peter ii. 9. I say all Christians are laborers. 
Every one has a work to do in his heart, house and 
neighborhood, in the Church and the world — we 
are lighted candles — we are the salt of the earth — 
we are to do all the glory of God — we are soldiers 
of the cross, fighting in the cause of Christ — we are 
all to be fellow-laborers, to reap and to sow, to look 
on the things of others, to have our conversation 
with grace. 

This work of ours is a great work. It is for God, 
for souls, for eternity. It is an honorable work. 
We are fellow-laborers with God, with Christ, with 
the Holy Spirit, with angels, with all the sacra- 
mental, blood-washed host. It is a work on honor- 



OF THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 1^3 

able materials, and with honorable purposes and 
results. Moreover, it is a legitimate work — the 
work for which we were created and converted and 
sanctified — the only work really we have to do 
— our being's end and aim. 

3. *'To hire." Our conversion comes from God. 
We love him because he first loved us. The reason 
of our hope to-day is, that God hath thought upon 
us in our low and lost estate. His passing by 
was a time of love. If we have come to him it is 
because he had called us by a persuasive and irresist- 
ible calL The love of Christ hath pleasantly and 
preciously constrained us. The '* hiring'' here is 
synonymous with the ** calling" in the sixteenth 
verse, and this call is not the common call of the 
gospel, but that gracious, sweet, all-prevailing call 
of the Spirit, which to the saved accompanies the 
outward preaching of the gospel. The word 
** called'"^ has always this meaning in the New 
Testament. Romans 1. i, 6, 7; viii. 28. i Corin- 
thians i. I, 2, 24. The participle ''calling" has 
also invariably this meaning. Also the verb kaleo 
has almost always this meaning. I believe there 
are only two exceptions, and in these it signifies 
the mere preaching of the word. 

Note, then, the Christian's obligation to be humble 
and thankful. Instead of claiming a reward of debt, 
on the contrary, by how much he is holy and fruit- 
ful, by so much is he a debtor to God ''v/ho has 
made him to differ," and who has ''wrought in him 

"'•'.Greek, kletos, verbal adjective. 

17 



IC)4 ^^^^ PARABLE 

all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work 
of faith with power." 

4. *'For a penny a day/' The Roman denarius 
(translated penny) was equivalent to about fifteen 
cents of our money — liberal wages for a day's work 
in ancient times. 

The penny, given as a reward for the labor, is 
God himself and all the blessings of the covenant 
of redemption. It is a favorite form of expression 
with the Sacred Scriptures to represent these bless- 
ings as a reward: ** Verily there is a reward to the 
righteous." Psalm Iviii. 11. Matthew v. 12. Luke 
vi- 35- John iv. 36. Hebrews xi. 6. 

Note, however, that this reward is always repre- 
sented as a reward of grace— of rich, free, sovereign 
grace. Romans iv. 4. Romans x. i-io. Galatians 
iv. 4. Even grace to labor is from God. i Corin- 
thians iv. 7. Besides, there can be no proportion 
between the labor and the wages. There is no 
merit at all in the labor performed, but the recom- 
pense is infinite and eternal. Oh, the depth of the 
love and the goodness of God! 

5. "Agreed." They must have an agreement, 
a compact. They could not trust him, and would 
not go without it. Here already we find the spirit 
which comes out and culminates in verses 10—12. 
How much better to have gone with love and con- 
fidence, to have gone, as did those subsequently 
hired, simply confiding in God that he would do 
that which was right by them, and that they would 
never, never be the losers by him. 

Still, notwithstanding this narrow spirit, they 



OF TBE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 



m 



were Christians^ not pretenders. They were labor- 
ers, not idlers* Their labor was accepted, no fault 
being found with it, and they were rewarded for it, 
just as those who went into the vineyard to labor, 
without making an agreement in regard to their 
wages. Further, Peter and all like him, who are 
reproved in the parable, are Christians, such Chris- 
tians as the elder brother in the parable of the 
prodigal son—of legal and narrow turn of mind. 

6. ''A day.'' This designates the period of 
activity from conversion until death. We are to 
labor for God, in the vineyard and out of it, until 
the end of life. There will never be a time when 
we m.ay relax our labors. But then it is only for a 
day— a set time — and if our work is not done during 
that time, it will never be done, and we will fail of 
Our reward forever. '*A day'' is a short time, 
therefore we should be diligent. We should gird 
up theToins of our mind. We should lay aside 
every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset 
us, and run with patience the race set before us. 
We should not entangle ourselves with any burden 
or hindrance. 

7. *'Sent them into his vineyard." The owner 
of the vineyard sent the laborers into it to labor, to 
labor all day, to labor for him. The Lord places 
Christians in his Church to work, to work for him, 
as long as life shall last. It may be objected that 
the Christians are few, and that there are many pre- 
tenders. We answer, yes, the Bible so represents 
it, as in the parable of the tares and the wheat, and 
that of the great net, in the thirteenth chapter of 



lp6 ^'^^ PARABLE 

Matthew. And now that it is so, what of it? What 
are you going to do about it? Will this fact be 
of any service to you? True, it is a fact; but it is 
one which should alarm you. You should see to it 
that you yourself are not among the idlers and the 
castaways ; that you should not be found naked 
and rewardless and destitute when the night cometh. 

8. He went out at the third, sixth, ninth and eleventh 
hours. Some make the different hours the main point 
of the parable. Not correct; see chapter xix., verse 
30. Others interpret the different hours as the 
different calls which God has given to men in dif- 
ferent ages of the world, as by Adam, Noah, Abra- 
ham, Moses and Christ. Incorrect again; for the 
call is not common, but the effectual call. See 
verses 4-6. Besides, according to this interpreta- 
tion, there could have been no murmuring in the 
case ; for how could those of ancient times have 
murmured at the superior blessings bestowed on 
the Church in these latter ages, since they were 
ignorant of them. Still further, this interpretation 
is not to the point in hand. The design of the 
parable was to reprove Peter and his associates for 
the spirit manifested by them in their question. 
Matthew xix. 27. 

Others again interpret the parable as relating to 
the Jews and Gentiles. Wrong. For, in the first 
place, this interpretation has no countenance from 
the context. It was not the Jewish nation, but 
Peter and all believers of a similar spirit, that are 
reproved in this parable. In the second place, as 
the great body of the Jewish Church, even the true 



OF THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD, 



ig7 



believers among them, had too much of that self- 
complacent and self-righteous spirit, which is here 
reproved, the parable applies indeed to them, but 
by no means to them only. 

Once more: there are some who interpret the 
hours in the parable as designating the different 
periods of life at which men are converted to God, 
as childhood, youth, manhood, old age, and near 
death. It is indeed true that men are converted 
at all those periods. But then not all early con- 
verts are filled with a self-righteousness and boast- 
ing spirit, nor are all late converts free from it. 

The true Interpretation is, that the rewards and 
promotions of glory are distributed not according to 
seniority y nor according to the measure of men, but 
according to the holy and wise sovereignty of God, who 
giveth to every man, severally as he willy and who doeth 
all things well. 

But observe none were hired at the twelfth hour. 
If death comes upon us before conversion, then are 
we forever lost. There is no help then. Let none 
procrastinate. The parable gives no encouragement 
to that. Those who do so, can not say: '' We are 
idle, because no man hath hired us." They have 
all along refused to be hired. Such persons are in 
great danger. Sins are accumulating most fearfully. 
God is provoked. The Spirit is resisted and grieved ; 
conscience and the remains of the religious nature 
are more and more wounded and weakened ; lust and 
all indwelling sin grow apace ; the soul, under a felt 
bufden of guilt and degradation, is becoming more 
and more estranged from God ; and Satan and the 



igS THE PARABLE 

world are more and more increasing their power 
over it for evil and for ruin. Procrastination is dan- 
gerous and generally fatal, 

9. ''Why stand ye here all the day idle?'* All 
is lost time and labor, except that which is spent in 
serving God and living to his glory. For all that, 
and for that only, shall we reap a reward of glory in 
eternity. 

10. The recko7iing, *'Saith unto the steward, 
Call the laborers and give them their hire/' The 
steward is Christ, who judges and rewards. He- 
brews iii. 6. John v. 22, 27. The reckoning 
took place *'when even was come.'' So soon as 
Christians die, they enter on their reward. To die 
is gain to them. To be with Christ is far better, in 
every sense far better, than to remain in this world. 
The day of death is hence better to the Christian 
than the day of birth. Hence when death comes, 
we should hail it with joy, with rejoicings, and 
transports. Death is the voice of the Savior call- 
ing us from toil to rest, from labor to reward. 
Christ will then give us the penny, our hire, even 
God himself, ^ and all the joys and glories of the life 
to come. 

Hence, too, should we be comforted in the loss 
of Christian friends. They have entered into life 
and light and love ineffable. We should not mourn 
as those who have no hope. We should not say of 
them ''they are no more," but, rather, "they have 
just begun to be.'' 

11. The reward. "Beginning from the last tmto 

* Genesis xv. Psalm xvi. 5. 



OF THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. igg 

the first." They all receive the same reward, God 
or the blessing of the covenant of grace. But this 
does by no means imply an equality of glory and 
happiness in heaven. For though the same reward 
is given to all, all are not equally capable of enjoy- 
ing it — each enjoys according to his capacity, and 
capacities dififer. The capacity of each for enjoy- 
ment is '* according to the measure of the stature 
of fullness in Christ" — according to the fullness of 
his participation of the divine life here. All are 
full, but all contain not alike. All shine with the 
same light, but not with the same breadth of disk. 

This fullness of growth in Christ is not in propor- 
tion to the length of time we have been Christians, 
but, rather, in proportion to the rapidity of our 
growth, or to both combined. And this again is all 
attributable to the free gift of sovereign grace. Not 
unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name, O Lord, 
be the glory. 

12. T/ie iniirmitrmg. How is this consistent with 
the character and state of the saved ? How can it 
be said that the glorified murmur ? We answer, 
that it is not consistent. The glorified do not mur- 
mur. The parable does not prophesy this; but it 
pictures forth the terrible evil that was working in 
Peter and the others, and shows to what it would 
naturally lead. Nor w^as the lesson unnecessary. 
How much harm has that evil principle of pride 
and self-complacency always wrought in the world ! 
How has it injured individuals and marred the glory 
of churches ! 



200 ' THE PARABLE 

1 3 . The Justification. 

(i.) There was no wrong done to the individual, 
but an abundant reward conferred. 

(2. ) The sovereignty of God in the bestowment 
of favors. Doubtless the great God has good reasons 
for all he does and for all the differences he makes ; 
but still he is not bound to state his reasons to us, 
and often does not state them. He is a law unto 
himself, but knows no other law, recognizes no 
other responsibilitity. 



4 



OF THE TWO SONS. 2OI 



SERMON XL 
The Parable of the Two Sons. 

MATTHEW XXI. 28-33. 



1. The chief priests and elders of the people 
came to our Savior, as he was teaching in the 
temple, and inquired by what authority he acted. 
Verse 23. They had a right, as the heads of the 
Church, to investigate the character and claims of 
those who went forth, as teachers, among the flock 
committed to their care. The inquiry was there- 
fore, in itself, a proper one. 

2. The inquirers, however, were insincere. 
Christ's doctrines, miracles, and life had already 
sufficiently declared who he was. But they wished 
to entangle him. Would he be silent? Then they 
would publish him as a convicted and cowardly 
traitor. Would he speak and claim the Messianic 
office ? Then they would accuse him of blasphemy. 

3. Jesus answers by asking them a question, 
which covers them with embarrassment and diffi- 
culty. How easy for God to disappoint the devices 
of his enemies, and turn them against themselves. 



202 1'SE PARABLE 

He makes their own sv/ord enter their own heart. 
He takes them in their own snare. They fall into 
their own pit; for example, the temptation of our 
first parents by Satan, the crucifixion of Christ, the 
persecution about Stephen, the career of Julian, and 
the infidel attacks on the Bible. 

4. Opposition to Christians and to Christianity is 
opposition to Christ, and he will now and always 
foil it. 

5. ''We can not tell,'' say the baffled priests and 
elders. Verse 27. Oh, how tortuous and troublous 
are the ways of sin! How plain and safe the path 
of duty. ^ 

The parable reproves these insincere inquirers^ and 
shows them their danger. 

1. The immediate application is to the Pharisees 
and publicans ; but the general principle applies to 
all similar classes of men. All the unconverted 
world is divided into these two classes of Pharisees 
and publicans. 

2. ^^ Had two sonsy Verse 28. Both Pharisees 
and publicans were the sons of God by federal rela- 
tion — both were the sons of Abraham, and were 
circumcised. Unconverted children are the sons 
of God by federal relation. They and all men are 
the sons of God by creation and preservation. 

3. '^Go worky Children must work for their 
parents— all men for God. 

4. ''In my vineyard^ Our heart is a vineyard, to 
be cultivated for God. Proverbs xxiv. 30. The 
Church is a vineyard. Psalm Ixxx. Isaiah v. 
Matthew xx. 



OF THE TWO SONS 



203 



5. '' To-day'' During this life. Hebrews iii. 7- 
15. I Thessalonians v. 5-8. This hfe is our day 
of opportunity. When it is ended, our opportuni- 
ties are ended. Luke xvi. 25-31. 

6. ''Work today.'' All day — during the whole 
life. Life is given for this purpose. The labor to 
be performed is great and difficult. The world, 
Satan and indwelling sin oppose and hinder the 
Christian in its performance. Ephesians vi. 13-17. 

7. '* Work to-day," Now, without delay. Eccle- 
siates ix. 10. Matthew xxii. 4. God, Christ, the 
Holy Spirit, all are ready now. The command is 
to begin to labor at once. Delay is dangerous. 

8. ''Son, work," Authority and affection — au- 
thority of the great God — affection from Him, 
against whom we have so deeply revolted — affec- 
tionate command as coming from a loving heart, as 
enjoining that which is for our good, and as accom- 
panied with the necessary aids of grace. Malachi 
iii. 17. Psalm ciii. 13-17. 

9. (^)This work is necessary. Without it we shall 
be lost — without it vice and misery in the soul and 
the world will ever increase, {d) It is di good, happy 
work — it makes the soul like God and the world 
like heaven, {c) It is an honorable work — in it we 
are associated with God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, 
angels and saints, {d) It is a legitimate work — all 
other legitimate work is only subsidiary to it. 

10. The command, ''Son, go work to-day in my 
vineyard,'' is to all. Proverbs viii. 4. Isaiah Iv. 
I. Matthew xxviii. 19. Not only Scripture calls 
and commands all ; but the whole course of creation 



204 



THE PARABLE 



and providence does the same. Psalm xix. i-6. 
Romans i. 20. Acts xiv. 17. 

11. ''He answered and saidy I will not'' One 
class of the unconverted, at once and absolutely, 
refuse to obey. This class includes not only the 
publicans and harlots of all countries and times, and 
all such as are represented by the prodigal son 
(Luke XV.), but all those who openly reject the 
claims of the gospel- — such as have no delight in 
God's work, live only for this present life, live to 
themselves and for themselves, afar from God. 

12. * * But afterward he repented ^ and went'' Some 
of the worst sinners repent, believe the gospel, and 
are saved. 

13. '^I go, sir, and went not'' This represents 
the following classes : 

(i.) Those apparently pious in childhood and 
youth who turn out badly afterward. 

(2.) Professors who promise well for a time, and 
then in an hour of trial give way and come to 
nothing. 

(3.) Moralists and Pharisees who trust in their 
own righteousness. 

14. * * The publicans and harlots go into the kingdoin 
before you," The former class, hardened as they 
seem, are more likely to be saved than the latter. 
The causes are as follows : 

(i.) The miseries of a life of coarse sin power- 
fully reclaim against it. 

(2.) In their misery they are awakened to a long- 
ing after something better. 

(3.) Their felt guilt makes the blood of Jesus and 



OF THE TWO SOJ\S. 



205 



his righteousness precious, and their felt and galHng 
corruptions prepare them for receiving gladly the 
healing balm of the Great Physician. 

(4.) But the self-righteousness of the second class 
stupefies their conscience and leads them to put the 
Savior far away. 

DISCUSSION. 

As we have said, the *^two sons'* represent the 
chief priests, scribes, elders and Pharisees in gen- 
eral on the one hand, and the publicans and open 
sinners on the other. And the assertion is, that 
publicans and harlots should be saved rather than 
these formal religionists. An examination of the 
New Testament shows that this was actually the 
case. Matthew ix. 9; xx. 16. Luke vii. 37-^50; 
xix. 9. Romans V. 20, 21; ix. 30-33. i Timothy 
i. 13-16. The last of these texts shows that the fact 
asserted in our parable was not peculiar to the nation 
of the Jews, but is common among the Gentiles 
also. Zephaniah iii. 12. i Corinthians i. 26-31. 
John vii. 48. Matthew xi. 25. James ii. 5. Rev- 
elation ii. 9. 

These declarations of Holy Writ are verified in 
the history of the Church in every age. The pagan 
philosophy of Greece and of Rome formed in the 
days of primitive Christianity a stronger barrier 
against the progress of the gospel than all the idol- 
atrous customs and prejudices of the common peo- 
ple. The primitive converts were chiefly, almost 
entirely, from the lower and middle classes of soci- 
ety. The Christian Church was reproached as being 



206 'J^nE PARABLE 

the shelter and the home for the wickedest and 
worst of mankind. And tlius it has ever been. 
The great, the rich, the learned (as the world views 
learning\ the powerful, as a general thing, like 
Dives, have received their good things in this life,"^ 
whilst the peace loving spirit of Christianity, fleeing 
from the glitter and noise of the world, has sought 
a home in the changed and tranquilized hearts of the 
plebeian population. So it was in the m.iddle ages. 
Even among the great men of the Church you will 
find but little on which the Christian's eye can rest 
with satisfaction. But in the shades of obscurity, 
and in the remote and almost inaccessible valleys of 
the Alps, the Christian graces and virtues bloomed 
and flourished. So it was also in the Reformation. 
Kings, popes, priests, politicians, great men in 
general (as the world views greatness), were its 
opponents and persecutors. But the middle and 
lower classes of society, the unlearned, the obscure 
and the humble hailed it and the gospel, which Avas 
its moving force, with eagerness and joy. So it is 
now. Look at Germany, England, New England. 
Their statesmen, philosophers,, and, alas ! many of 
their divines, reject the simple faith of the gospel, 
and put their trust in rationalistic and neological 
theories, or in schemes of justification and salvation 
by human morality and merit. 

But why is this? Can not God convict and save 
such persons as well as others? And if so, why 
does he not ? They are within the reach of convert- 
ing grace, as is evinced by the fact, that although 

■•'■ Luke xvi. 25» 



OF THE TWO SONS. 20/ 

the overwhelming majority of such persons in apos- 
tolic times hved unsanctified and died unblest, yet 
some of them were converted and saved. 

1. Among the. primitive Christians there were 
some persons of wealth, i Timothy ii. 9. i Peter 
iii. 3. 

2. There were among them also men of learning. 
I Timothy vi. 20. Colossians ii. 8. 

3. Some of them were persons of rank. I 
Corinthians i. 26. The declaration that not 7na7ij/ 
noble were called, implies that a few of such persons 
were called, among whom w^as Dionysius. Acts 
xvii. 34. 

Why the publicans and harlots, open and avowed 
and outrageous sinners, were received into the king- 
dom of God rather than the reverend elders, the 
learned and studious lawyers, and the grave and 
orderly Pharisees ; and why the rich and the noble 
and the learned and the mere moralist are often 
passed by, while those worse and wickeder and 
more ignorant and more degraded are taken, is an 
inquiry at once interesting and instructive. We 
remark, as follows: 

I. There are certain states of mind more favor- 
able to the reception of the gospel than others. 
The salvation it offers is salvation to the lost, the 
miserable, the guilty, the helpless; and none but 
those who feel themselves to be so will embrace it. 
Those who are rich and fare sumptuously every 
day — who are driven by the cares of this world and 
are immersed in its pleasures — have no inclination 



2o8 "THE PARABLE 

or desire for the gospel, which is a gospel for the 
poor and miserable. 

Those who are learned can not consent to receive 
instruction as little children from a divine teacher, 
or put themselves on a level with the ignorant. 
Their minds are engrossed by other studies. Hav- 
ing strong minds, and being conscious and vain of 
their strength, they neglect prayer for the influence 
of the Spirit. 

Those who are noble disdain to be placed on a 
level with the poor and the mean in the concern- 
ment of salvation. Accustomed to flattery, they 
overestimate themselves. Relying on their power 
and many resources, they do not feel helpless and 
poor and miserable, and hence do not realize the 
need of salvation. 

The man of morality and civility, vain of his 
accomplishments, turns away with bitterness and 
disdain from the humbling doctrines of the gospel. 
This was the condition of the Pharisees and of the 
elders. Outwardly strict observers of the law, far 
removed from open, gross immorality, they never 
dreamed that they needed- an atonement, and so 
were not likely to come to Christ. Indeed as long 
as they retained their proud, self-righteous spirit, 
they were not open to the reception of the gospel. 
How could they trust in Christ as their Savior, who 
did not believe themselves lost? How could they 
apply to the Great Physician for aid, who did not 
believe themselves sick? How could they desire 
and receive the true riches, who did not believe 
themselves poor and miserable and naked, but 



OF THE TWO SONS, 



209 



esteemed themselves rich and increased in goods 
and in need of nothing? Will that man thank you 
for the offer of a shelter who is not exposed? or for 
food, who is full ? or for medicine, who is well ? 

The priests, elders, lawyers, scribes and Phar- 
isees, from their self-sufficient and self-righteous 
spirit were not open to the influences of the 
gospel; and there are many in our own day pre- 
cisely in the same condition. Thus the rick, en- 
grossed with the cares and pleasures of wealth, 
have no time nor heart to seek salvation. The 
student \^ so much taken up with the investi- 
gations of science that his mind is entirely ab- 
stracted from the study of the great truths revealed 
in the Scriptures — so much employed in learn- 
ing what is without him, that he has no time 
left for becoming acquainted with himself — so ab- 
sorbed in tracing second causes, that he entirely 
forgets the great First Cause of all. Perhaps to 
the spiritually-minded man, there is not out of the 
Bible a more cogent proof of the depravity of the 
human mind than is to be found in the fact that men 
are universally prone to forget God and wander from 
him in their reasoning and conclusions. 

Here I would take occasion to protest and earn- 
estly remonstrate against the course of education 
pursued in our universities, our law and medical col- 
leges, our seminaries and district schools. It tends 
to the destruction of all religion and to the propa- 
gation of infidelity in its stead, and hence it is exe- 
crated of God and of all good and thoughtful men. 
This is one of the evils that finds its excuse in the 
18 



2IO THE PARABLE 

divided state of the Church, and it tends to increase 
the evil in which it claims to originate. But as the 
student and the man of wealth of our day are in 
much the same condition with those to whom our 
parable was originally addressed, so also are the 
politician and statesman. 

But, above all, the ignorant moralist is not likely 
to enter the kingdom of heaven. Like the Pharisee 
of our text, he is ignorant of the reality and totality 
of man's natural corruption — ignorant of the ex- 
ceeding breadth and spirituality of God's law — 
ignorant of the character of God as a sin-hating 
and sin-avenging God, and therefore the good news 
of the gospel is to him a sealed book and a dead 
letter. Man is morally diseased, guilty and ruined. 
The gospel offers a remedy — offers healing, cleans- 
ing, deliverance, restoration to righteousness and 
purity, and to the blessed enjoyment of God's favor. 
But to the ignorant moralist the offer is useless. 
He will neither understand, believe in, nor receive 
it. 

Many men in our country suppose that if they 
only believe that Christ has come and died and 
arisen and ascended, and then live as well as they 
can, that all will be well with them. Alas, what 
infatuation and madness ! What a desperate delu- 
sion of the carnal mind ! Is man not fallen ? Is he 
not corrupt? Is he not estranged from God? Is 
he not a sinner and under the wrath and curse of 
God? Is it not necessary that his sins be forgiv^en, 
and that he is freed from the fiery and dreadful 
curse? Is there no need for the new birth, and for 



OF THE TWO SONS. 2 1 1 

the sanctification of the soul? Poor, mad, mole- 
bhnd mortals ! who know not, and will not learn, 
the way of life, but take up with a few notions 
picked up by chance, and desperately risk all and 
lose all in an unsound bottom. Oh when will men 
cease to be the victims of their own folly ! Now 
these men have no accessible side on which Chris- 
tianity can approach them. They are in their own 
estimation the whole who have no need of the Great 
Physician, and to offer him to them is like casting 
pearls before sv/ine. 

The case is altogether different with the gross, 
but the convinced and humbled sinner. Such a one 
feels the need of pardon — of a justifying righteous- 
ness — of effectual calling, and inward illumination — 
of Gpd's sanctifying, strengthening, preserving and 
upholding grace. He feels his utter unworthiness 
and his need of salvation, and thus is prepared to 
accept the offers and promises of the gospel. This 
principle goes far to account for the fact that the 
publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God 
before the grave, sober, formal, solemn, but self- 
righteous and self-sufficient Pharisees. 

But if it is replied, that the efficacious and invin- 
cible grace of God could change these men — could 
bring them to see how vile, sinful and miserable 
they are — how much they need the salvation of the 
gospel and how greatly mistaken they are in trust- 
ing to anything else; and that the Spirit, who blow- 
jeth where he listeth, and the Almighty God, who 
doeth his will in the army of heaven and among the 
inhabitants of earth, could touch and change the 



212 THE PARABLE 

hearts of even these men of pride and an ignorant, 
rotten self-dependence, and bring them as earnest, 
humble beggars to the footstool of sovereign 
mercy — and if it therefore be inquired why a high 
and uncontrolled God sometimes makes the great- 
est and grossest of sinners the object of his almighty 
and saving influences, whilst he passes by the ac- 
complished and self-complaisant moralist, it is suffi- 
cient to answer that so it seemed good in his sight. 

But I think that in the inspired pages we may also 
discover the revelation of another reason, viz: that 
thus all will be compelled to say that salvation is 
wholly of grace. Romans iii. 23-27; v. 20, 21. 

It would seem that, as a general thing, he selects 
the middle and lower classes of society rather than 
the learned, the accomplished and the proud ; and, 
that he sometimes selects the publican and the har- 
lot to be the objects and the subjects of his saving 
power — ^just for the same reason that he chose the 
twelve apostles from the middle and lower classes 
rather than from among kings, princes and philos- 
ophers, viz : that all men may be compelled to 
acknowledge that the salvation of the believer from 
first to last is from God only, and that they may be 
enabled from the depths of a broken and melted 
heart to say and sing, ''Not unto us, O Lord, not 
unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy 
mercy, and for thy truth's sake.'' 

CONCLUSION. 

I. Let our parable be a warning to those who 
once were, or seemed to be, in a fair way to become 



OF THE TWO SONS. 213 

respectable and useful Christians, but who, like 
spring blossoms, now lie withered beneath the tree, 
and are trodden under foot. 

2. Let this parable be a warning to the back- 
slidden and backsliding churches of Protestantism, 
and let them repent of their errors, lukewarmness, 
and schisms. 

3. Let this parable be a warning to those Protest- 
ant nations that once promised well, but who have 
now cast off or are casting off allegiance to Prince 
Messiah. Especially let it be a warning to our own 
nation. 

4. Let those who have hitherto been great sinners 
take encouragement to repent and return to God. 

5. Let God's children be encouraged to be busy 
with and for the guilty. 



214 THE PARABLE 



SERMON XII. 



The Parable of the Wicked 
Husbandmen. 

MATTHEW XX 1 . 3 3-^44. 



This parable foreshadows the rejection of the 
Jews and the calHng of the Gentiles. In doing 
this, it gives us an interesting and impressive view 
of the divine character and government, a very 
alarming picture of the depravity of the human 
heart, and a most solemn warning against obduracy 
and impenitence. To these things we invite your 
attention to-day. 

I. The expositio7t of the parable, 

I. ** A certain man planted a vineyard.'' (Thirty- 
third verse. ) We can be at no loss for the mean- 
ing of this figure, which so plainly points out the 
Church of the Jewish times. To speak of God's 
Church under the image of a vine, of vine-branches 
or of a vineyard, is a frequent and a favorite style 
of the Sacred Oracles. Isaiah v. 1-7. Psalm Ixxx. 
8-16. Jeremiah ii. 21. 

And the image is a fit one. The unwearied pains 



OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 



215 



necessary in cultivating the vine, fitly emblemizes 
the divine care in the culture of the Church. The 
abundance and deliciousness of the fruit, with its 
rich and generous juices, excellently shadows forth 
the fruits of piety, while the barren vine, the most 
useless of all the wood of the forest, not fit to 
make even a pin whereon to hang a garment, is a 
sad shadow of a barren church or a barren soul. 

2. But as to the vineyard which God had planted 
on a very fruitful hill, he ^* hedged it round about." 
Verse 35. By his laws and institutions, he erected 
''a middle wall of partition "* between Jews and 
Gentiles, whereby the people dwelt alone and were 
not reckoned among the nations, and so were pre- 
served from the corrupting influence of the sur- 
rounding world, during the immature state of that 
period, f ^'Judea by its geographical position was 
hedged round — by the bounty of nature on every 
side circumscribed and defended— guarded on the 
east by the river Jordan and the two lakes, on the 
south by the desert and the mountainous country 
of Idumea, on the west by the sea, and by Anti- 
Libanus on the north. ''4] The people dwelt alone in 
the midst of the earth, and nature itself rose up to 
defend them. So did nature \s God. Flis power, 
wisdom, goodness and grace were *'awall of fire 
round about them, and a glory in their midst." As 
the mountains were round about Jerusalem, so the 
Lord was round about his people from day to day. 
Yea, in that day they sang this song: '' A vineyard 
of red wine. I the Lord do keep it ; I will water it 

'=■ Ephesians ii. 14. t Numbers xxiii. 9. J Trench. 



2l6 THE PARABLE 

every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night 
and day/'* 

3. ** He also digged a winepress." As the wine- 
press causes the juices of the purple and gushing 
clusters to flow forth, so God made a winepress for 
his Church; i. e.^ he established those ordinances 
and institutions, whereby the fruits of piety were 
made to abound to his glory. Nehemiah ix. 3. 

4. *'He built a tower." Verse 33. I am not 
prepared to affirm this to be added merely for orna- 
ment or to complete the imagery, so long as a spir- 
itual meaning seems to be so evidently indicated. 
For as a tower furnished a commanding point of 
observation and oversight, so God established in his 
ancient vineyard civil and religious government, 
with all the blessings which (when well adminis- 
tered) follows in its train. He gave his people, 
officers and leaders written laws and republican in- 
stitutions, himself ever remaining at the head of 
all. Thus the vineyard was finished and furnished. 

5. ''He let it out to husbandmen." By the hus- 
bandmen here some understand the Jewish teachers 
and rulers. But I would understand rather the 
whole house of Israel. To the entire nation was 
committed the keeping of the oracles of God. To 
them all pertained the adoption and the glory and 
the covenants and the giving of the law, and the ser- 
vice of God and the promises. To the entire Jew- 
ish Church was committed a great and solemn trust, 
and for the faithful discharge of the high duties 



■^- Zechariah ii. 5. Psalm cxxv. 2. Isaiah xxvii. 2, 3. 



OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN, 



217 



which that trust imposed were the whole Jewish 
corporation held responsible, 

6. *' And went into a far country." By this we 
are not to understand any removal or change of 
place. Much less are we to understand that God, 
the householder, is not at all times present every- 
where — for the Omnipresent Jehovah fills heaven 
and earth — but the language is used in accommo- 
dation to human weakness. God is said to have 
taken his journey afar, either because after he had 
delivered his people from Egypt and planted them 
in Palestine, he was not visibly and sensibly pres- 
ent within subsequent periods, or, because the vine- 
dressers imagined that God did not notice or regard 
their conduct. Ezekiel viii. 12; ix. 9. Luke xii. 45. 

7. *^ And when the time of the fruit drew near, 
he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they 
might receive the fruits of it." Privilege implies 
responsibility. Trust implies our obligation. Our 
talents, learning, skill and wealth are so many trusts 
committed to us of God, for the right use o^ which 
we are to be accountable to him. At the proper 
season God will require us to give an account of 
our stewardship, and of every one of us he will 
require fruit proportioned to the mercies bestowed. 

8. ''And the husbandmen took his servants, and 
beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. 
Again, he sent other servants more than the first : 
and they did unto them likewise." Verses 35 and 
36, The prophets and extraordinary messengers, 
whom God raised up and sent to call the people to 
repentance and stimulate them to reformation and 

^9 



2l8 THE PARABLE 

holiness, are here spoken of. He sent his prophets, 
rising early and sending them, saying : '* Oh do not 
this abominable thing that I hate." But they 
heeded not. ''They beat one, and killed another, 
and stoned another." The Scriptures give ample 
statement of facts in corroboration of the charge 
here brought. I Kings xix. 10. 2 Kings vi. 31. 
2 Chronicles xxiv. 19. Jeremiah xxxvii. 15. Acts 
vii. 52. And if we may believe the traditions of 
the Jews themselves, Isaiah was sawn asunder, Jere- 
miah was stoned to death by the exiles in Egypt, 
and Amos was beaten to death with a club. At a 
later period John the Baptist fared no better. Dur* 
ing a long period the servants of God experienced 
continual persecution and sorrow. *'They were 
stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, 
slain with the sword : they wandered about in sheep- 
skins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tor- 
mented."^ The entire discourse of Stephen is but 
a brief historic compend, in demonstration of the 
charge brought in our text.f 

9. But the mercy of God is above all his works. 
The goodness of God is infinite. ''But last of all 
he sent unto them his son, saying. They will rever- 
ence my son." Verse 37. Mark says: "Having 
yet therefore one son, his well beloved, he sent him 
also last unto them." (Chapter xii. 6.) Behold, 
my brethren, the patience of Godi How great is 
his goodness ! how great is his bounty ! Instead 
of lifting up his awful voice and arousing his terri- 
ble power, he studies to devise ways and means to 

■-'^ Hebrews xi. 37. t Acts Tii. 



OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 



2ig 



spare and reclaim the rebels. He sends his "one 
Son," sayingj ''They will reverence my Son." 

But here, again, we meet with language spoken 
after the manner of men. We are not to under- 
stand that God did not foresee their rejection and 
crucifixion of Emmanuel. But he uses the language 
of the parable in speaking as men do ; as much as 
to say: ''Surely this patience and goodness will 
melt them and win them ; surely they are not so lost 
to all sense of justice and gratitude and loyalty as 
to treat him as they treated the servants ; since they 
are men and not devils, surely they will reverence 
my Son.'* 

ID. But behold the enormous height of wicked- 
ness, to which sin Carries the obdurate and impeni^ 
tent heart. " Because sentence against an evil work 
is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the 
sons of men is fully set in them to do eviL"'^ As 
soon as the husbandmen saw the son they deter- 
mined to destroy him. Their language was: "This 
is the heir ; come, let us kill him, and let us seize 
on his inheritance." Verse 38. We are not to 
suppose that the Jewish nobles and rulers ever dared 
to use this language in each other's ears, or to avow 
such sentiments, when consulting together to take 
the Messiah's life. But it is the thoughts of the 
heart, rather than the words of the tongue, which 
constitute language in the ears of God. If you wish 
to see how and when the parable found its fulfill- 
ment, turn to the eleventh chapter of John, 47-50, 
No sooner had Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead 

*''' Ecclesiastcs viii. 1 1. 



22Q THE PARABLE 

' — a miracle which caused many to believe on him— ■ 
than the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered 
a council and said: **What do we? for this man 
doetli many miracles* If we let him thus alone, all 
men will believe on him; and the Romans shall 
come and take away both our place and nation. 
And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high 
priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know 
nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for 
US) that one man should die for the people, and that 
the whole nation perish not/* Behold the counsel 
of them who said, *'This is the heir; come, let us 
kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance." Lest 
they should lose their national independence and 
their religious pre-eminence, they w^ould kill him 
whom they confessed to have done many miracles. 
Can human wickedness mount higher ? 

II. But there is a point beyond w^hich divine 
mercy will not go, and the husbandmen had now 
reached that point. Henceforth God's clemency 
will restrain itself, and he will visit their sins upon 
them. **He will miserably destroy those wicked 
men, and will let out his vine>ard unto other hus- 
bandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their 
seasons;'' i. ^., he will utterly subvert the Jewish 
nation ; he will bring the Roman armies upon them ; 
he will scatter them to the four winds of heaven ; he 
will take from them the kingdom and give it to a 
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, even to the 
Gentiles* 

You will observe, my friends, that the Savior, 
being about to declare that the Jews should soon 



I 



OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 221 

cease to be the favorites of heaven, and were about 
to be signally destroyed of God, prefaces this dec- 
laration with a statement of the crimes and sins on 
account of which the divine vengeance was about 
to overtake them. Here, as in the parable which 
Nathan employed in dealing with David, you see 
not only the beauty, but the excellency of paraboli- 
cal teaching. Our Savior skillfully lays before the 
Jews their own guilt, as set forth in this parable, and 
elicits from their own mouths the just sentence of 
their own condemnation, before they perceive upon 
whom the denunciation was about to fall. ^'He 
will miserably destroy those wicked men," they 
truthfully, but unconsciously declared. He then 
went on to show that great as was the guilt of the 
Jewish people, that had been accumulating for cen- 
turies, and great as was the wrath of God on 
account of it, they were about to widen and deepen 
that guilt and wrath, by the rejection and crucifixion 
of the Son of the Most High. He further taught 
that, however great was their crime in rejecting and 
crucifying the Lord of glory, still the crowning act 
of the crime, that w^hich would cap the climax of 
their wickedness, would be their continued hatred 
of and opposition to him afterward. For even after 
their crucifixion of him, mercy would have been 
bestowed upon them, if they had repented and 
believed the gospel. The risen Savior commanded 
the disciples in preaching the gospel to begin at 
Jerusalem.^ Great as was the accumulated guilt 
of past times, and greatly augmented as this had 

* Luke xxiv. 47. 



222 THE PARABLE 

been by their treatment of the Messiah, still they 
had not utterly passed beyond the reach of mercy. 
But by their rejection of the salvation proclaimed, in 
the name of the risen Jesus, by his accredited em- 
bassadors, the cup of their iniquity, already full, 
was made to run over. By this last, crowning act of 
their rebellion, they passed beyond the reach of the 
hand of mercy, and there remained no more place 
for repentance. A destruction sudden, inevitable 
and irreversible came down from God upon them. 

Tliere is here, my friends, the exemplification of a 
lesson which we are greatly anxious that you should 
learn and lay to heart. It is this, that there is a 
point in the path of each one of you beyond which, 
if you go, you will be beyond the reach of mercy. 
Great and aggravated as are the sins of men before 
they reach that point, these sins may be washed out 
by the blood and Spirit of Christ ; but when once 
they pass beyond it, there is no hope of conversion 
and remission. All along the path of life does the 
Spirit, in his common operations, strive with the sin- 
ner, on up to that point of it beyond which he will 
strive no more, and all along does the incorrigi- 
ble sinner resist and grieve and quench the Spirit, 
thereby rendering his efforts and his intimations 
feebler and still more feeble, until finally they wane 
and wither into utter and everlasting extinction, and 
the obstinate sinner is given up and given over as a 
doomed and incorrigible outcast. If you once pass 
that point, beyond which the Holy Spirit will 
neither .follow nor strive, your salvation will be as 
impossible and as hopeless as that of those who with 



OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 



223 



a daring hand have comnaitted the sin against the 
Holv Ghost. 

I can not be mistaken, my friends. On this point 
the Holy Oracles speak a language not to be mis- 
understood. Genesis vi. 3. Psalm Ixxxi. 11, 12. 
Psalm xcv. 7-1 1. Luke xiii. 24-28. Revelation 
xxii. II, These, and other passages, teach that 
there is a point in the track of obstinacy, a day 
somewhere in the rebellious sinner's lifetime, 
beyond which, if he resists the appliances and 
instrumentalities brought to bear upon him in the 
gospel, the Spirit will cease to strive and the con- 
science to chide, and he will sink into coldness and 
indifference, from which he will not be aroused 
until death, with iron mace, knocks heavily at his 
door. 

But this is not the only consideration that should 
alarm the unconverted. There is another which 
lies back of it. This fearful condition is not reached 
at once, but by degrees. And the longer any one 
delays, the likelihood increases that he will become 
a reprobate. It is increased not only because time is 
passing, and he is drawing nearer and nearer the 
fatal limit, but also because his heart is hardening, 
and is hardening just as rapidly as time is passing. 
It is not an uncommon sight to see one, who, at 
ten years of age could not repose at night without 
pouring out his young heart in prayer, attain to 
such obduracy in sin, when he reaches the years 
of majority, that neither prayer, nor song, nor Sab- 
bath, nor sanctuary, are regarded by him. This 
gradual process of hardening is going on in heart 



224 



THE PARABLE 



and conscience of every one who is resisting the 
gospel and the Spirit of God. 

Now, my friends, what a lesson is here taught in 
regard to the necessity of present repentance and 
reformation ! How clearly does it demonstrate the 
folly of procrastination ! Each day as it passes 
increases the probabilities of your eternal perdition, 
if you are not already saved through faith and 
repentance. The work of seeking salvation is to 
you so difficult and unpleasant that you can not 
find in your heart to commence it, and hence you 
procrastinate. But when will it be less difficult or 
less unpleasant ? Never, never ; but the longer the 
worse. Sinful habits are growing stronger, and are 
deepening their hold. The gangrene is spreading. 
The affections are becoming still more earthly, ma- 
lignant passions still more violent, the conscience 
still more torpid, and, to crown all, the Holy Spirit 
is withdrawing himself I ask you, when under 
these circumstances will you repent, if you do not 
repent now? If you have not the heart to com- 
mence the work now, when will you have it ? Will 
it be when the sinful habits you are now forming 
shall have grown to maturity, and become a part, 
so to speak, of your very nature ? Will you more 
easily resolve to love God after your affections have 
become thorougly estranged from him? Will you 
be persuaded to forsake your sins when conscience 
has ceased to sound the trumpet of alarm, and the 
Holy Spirit, vexed and grieved, has turned to be 
your enemy and fights against you ? Oh, desperate 
infatuation of human folly! Miserable self-delud- 



OF THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 



225 



ing, seif-destroying course! Suppose you are a 
^ prisoner closely confined, and in circumstances of 
great distress, fed upon bread and water, and with 
the prospect before you that, in case your confine- 
ment continue, your misery will be continually and 
unspeakably augmented ; suppose, further, that the 
water you drink comes from a vessel tightly closed 
so that you may not know how much it contains 
and that no more may be put into it ; and suppose 
that you are assured, on good authority, that the 
means and opportunity of deliverance shall be 
afforded you at any moment you desire, on up until 
the time when all the water shall be exhausted from 
the vessel — how miserable your condition, if you 
do not embrace the offer of deliverance! When 
once you have exhausted the vessel, your prospects 
and your hopes are over. As you have already 
drawn much from it, and you know not the quantity 
it contained at first, perhaps the very next draught 
may exhaust the supply and close the doors of your 
prison upon you forever. Need I, my hearers, 
apply the comparison, or point out the truth which 
the supposition illustrates? Yield to the Spirit 
whilst he draws you. Repent whilst you may. 
Every act of rebellion grieves and quenches the 
Spirit's operations within you ; every Sabbath idled 
away, every sermon slighted, every unhallowed im- 
agination cherished, every providence unheeded, 
are so many provocatives to the withdrawal of his 
influence and his final departure from you. Thus 
saith the Lord: ''Woe unto them! for they have 
fled from me: destruction unto them ! because they 



226 ^^^ PARABLE 

have trangressed against me . . . yea, woe also to 
them when I depart from them/'^ 

My hearers, now, 7iozv^ is the accepted time, and 
now is the day of salvation. Who knows but that 
one more act of rebellion will consummate your" 
guilt? Who knows, if you now slight the Spirit's 
warning and winning voice, whether you shall ever 
hear it again ? You can not return from this house 
as you came. Who can certify you that this day's 
resistance will not provoke the God of glory to give 
you over into the hands of the god of this world 
to blind your minds and harden your hearts? Then 
will your case be hopeless indeed. 



* Hosea vii. 13; ix. .12. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 



227 



SERMON XIIL 



The Parable of the Royal JAab.- 

f' 



RIAGE rEAST. 

MATTHEW XXII. 2. 
{First Sermon.) 



The idea of the word '* marriage '' is marriage 
feast. The word rendered ** marriage'' is repeat- 
edly used in this sense in the Bible, and this is its 
force here. The feast, here, signifies the blessings 
of salvation, procured by the atonement of Christ, 
and offered in the everlasting gospel to the accept- 
ance of the children of men. 

The blessings of salvation are shadowed forth, 
under the image of a feast, to express their sweet- 
ness — their nourishing and delicious character. The 
children of men, giving ear to Satan and their cor- 
rupt hearts, feel as if there was no joy, no hap- 
piness, no comfort, in earnest and consecrated and 
experimental Christianity. As the children of 
Israel loathed the manna in the wilderness, so sin- 
ners disrelish spiritual blessings and joys. They 



228 "^HE PARABLE 

look on the Christian course as gloomy, distressed 
and painful, and they promise themselves far more 
comfort in a life according to the course of this 
world. Now, to arrest and interest their attention, 
as well as to express the true nature of the thing, 
God, the God who can not lie and can not exagger- 
ate or deceive, has, in his word, shadowed forth the 
blessings of redemption, under the similitude of a 
feast, a marriage feast, a royal marriage feast, the 
tvedding banquet of a king's son, surpassing all 
other feasts, transcending in royal and gorgeous 
richness, and in delicious sw^eetness, all other feasts 
in the world. 

Let us consider the feast itself, the eating of it, 
and the result to him that eateth it. 

I. Let us consider the feast itself. To meditate 
on it with profit, you must banish carnal ideas of it 
from your minds. You must direct your thoughts 
to something noble and spiritual. You must call to 
mind the */ bread of life," which came down from 
heaven to give life to the world. It is the bread 
typified by the manna, that corn of heaven, that 
angels' food, by which the Israelites were nourished 
in their journey through the desert. It is the 
bread, of which, if a man eat, he shall never die. 
The feast is here plainly not material food for the 
body, but spiritual food for the soul. It is not that 
sacramental food, w^hich you are to receive this day, 
but it is that invisible and impalpable soul food, 
which the sacrament shadows forth and seals to the 
humble, believing recipient. It is not the bread of 
miracles, given to the children of Israel, to nourish 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST, 229 

and confirm their weak and wavering faith, in that 
infant state of the Church* 

Thousands are not to be fed here from the loaves 
and the fishes wherewith the compassionate Savior 
nourished the famishing multitudes who waited on 
his ministry. Nor yet in inviting you to this feast, 
do w^e offer that bread of pleasantness, eaten in 
secret, whereafter the flesh of carnal men lusts, and 
wherewith the world, with perfidious and deceitful 
tongue, promises to regale it. 

But it is the '* bread of life'' we offer you, a feast 
of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat 
things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well 
refined ; a feast of the soul, a wine to make the 
heart glad, an oil to make the face shine, and bread 
to strengthen you. 

I. Not only is this feast a spiritual feast. It is 
divine. Its great Author is divine. The King is a 
great King, even a heavenly. He is the King eternal, 
immortal, and invisible. He is the everlasting God, 
who created the earth and strewed the heavens with 
stars ; who laid the beams of his chambers in the 
waters, and stretched out the heavens as a curtain ; 
v/ho formed the light and created the darkness ; who 
maketh the good and createth the evil ; who feeds 
the raven and clothes the lily ; v/ho feeds the young 
ravens when they cry, and gives the young and 
roaring lion his food. It is a feast of his providing, 
and it is a feast w^orthy of its Author. For the ma- 
terial of this feast is divine and heavenly also. If 
the Author is divine, the guests are heavenly. 
Angels are there, not as guests, but as companions, 



230 ^^^^ PARAniE 

as ministers, and the food Itself is such as only the 
precious Hfe of the God-mart, Mediator, could pur* 
chase. The feast is the worthy fruit of his incarna* 
tion and mighty travail, of his toil and his tears and 
dying groans. 

It is a feast of pardon, of full, free, unconditional 
pardon, to all who will accept it; of pardon for all 
their sins, no matter how many, how great, or how 
greatly aggravated ; of every man who truly desired 
to flee from the wrath to come. It is a feast of 
acceptance into the family and fellowship of God; a 
feast in which it is given you to taste the ineffable 
sweetness of divine love, shed abroad in the heart 
by the Holy Ghost! It is a feast of sanctifying 
grace; of grace to renovate, to purify, beautify, 
ennoble, and fit for heaven. It is a feast, in a word, 
in which the soul feeds upon Jesus Christ, and so is 
filled with the fullness of him, in whom dvvelleth 
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; partakes of 
his life, whereby you live forever; of his strength, 
whereby you are enabled to overcome all and tri- 
umph over all ; of his wisdom to guide and direct 
in all possible emergencies ; of his Spirit, whereby 
you are transformed into his Image, and come to be 
like him ; of his blood, whereby you are purged 
from all sin; of his righteousness, wherein, as with 
a robe of spotless, stainless purity, you shall stand 
with acceptance before the throne of God. 

2, Therefore, I remark, it is a nutrimental feast. 
The Savior, all whose words are truth, assures us, 
''He that eateth me, even he shall live by me/* 
If any man eat of the bread of earth, he shall hun» 



OF THE MAURtAGE FEAST. 231 

ger again ; and if he eat only of that bread, he shall 
die and perish forever. But he who eateth of this 
bread shall never hunger. He shall never die. He 
shall be nourished nito life eternal. Marvelous 
feast is this ! And, oh, why will any of you reject 
It? You are dying, perishing men, but this food 
will save you. Your souls are pining and famishing, 
but this food, if you will but eat it, will be both 
diet and medicine to you^ and you shall live, though 
you were dead. Bclievest thou this, and wilt thou 
still reject it? Damaging and infatuated folly! 
Who hath ever heard or could have been convinced 
that any dying man could have been guilty of it? 
Were some poor wretch pinioned down, by a pain- 
ful disease, to a bed of languishing, and doomed to 
sorrowful days and wearisome nights, informed of a 
diet, costly, but free to him, a diet at once medic* 
inal and nutrimental, a diet, w^hich alone would free 
his body from all pain, all disease, all weakness, and 
restore him to perfect health and strength — oh how 
gladly would he search for it until he found it, and 
how willingly and how greedily would he feed upon 
it until he had recovered ! Were some poor Hindu, 
as he sighs on the banks of the Ganges, and awaits 
the angel of death to put a period to his earthly 
career, to be informed of an herb, which, if he would 
eat It, would restore his worn and wasted frame to 
youth and health and strength and beauty, and 
make his regained strength to wear and his newly 
found beauty to bloom immortally, how eagerly, 
how restlessly, would he seek until he found it, and, 
returning to his home and surprised and transported 



232 



THE PARABLE 



friends, inform them of his wondrous recovery, and 
of the marvelous means by which he became im- 
mortal ! Now that herb is the gospel feast ! Eating 
it, the soul becomes immortal, and it is this, and 
this alone, that can save the sinner from death and 
hell ! It alone can give the dying sinner life, and 
restore the famishing soul to strength, and make it 
live forever ! Eating it, the soul becomes strong 
and deathless, and is enabled to carry on the contest 
with the world, the flesh, and the devil; and, not- 
withstanding the unequal odds, to come out of the 
strife ''a conqueror, and more than conqueror, 
through Him that loved us." 

3. And it will have this effect, not only in one 
case, but in every case. For it is a feast suited to 
alL To every son of Adam born it is adapted, and 
for him it will be efficient, if he will but receive it. 
No soul is beyond its efficacy, if it be but tried. 
Jesus Christ is a mighty Savior, able to save to the 
uttermost ail those that come to God by him. No 
one has ever eaten of this food, and perished of 
hunger. It is a feast adapted to men of every age, 
country, character, rank, and condition. It will 
revive and strengthen the fainting Arab amid his 
scorching sands, and nourish, as with marrow and 
fatness, the shivering Greenlander in his cave of 
snow and storm. It adds to youth a fresher beauty; 
to manhood a stronger nerve, and by purifying the 
sluggish veins of age, causes them to stream more 
Vi/armly and sweetly to the heart. It lends to hope 
a brighter pinion ; to intellect a clearer vision, and 
to the soul a sure anchor amid the storms of time. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 233 

Above all, its sweet efficacy and priceless value 
are found in the hour of trial and sorrow. When 
disaster follows disaster, until poverty lays the 
griping hand of want upon you ; when sickness and 
disease sting j^ou with their poison-dripping fangs, 
until the head swims, the knees tremble, and the 
heart faints ; when the world deserts you ; and your 
best friends, like those of Job, become your worst 
tormentors ; though your bosom's bride, the dear 
object of the heart's idolatry, like the fair and false 
Delilah, should desert you, should mock at your 
heart's desolation ; yet the soul, sustained and 
strengthened by this heavenly food, reveling on 
this celestial banquet, filled with marrow and fat- 
ness, as it falls from the hand of God, is able to 
endure all, to encounter all, to triumph over all. 
And as it breaks through every wall and overleaps 
every barrier ; as it, with more than Samson's 
strength, puts troops of enemies to flight and dis- 
comfits them, and goes on from victory to victory, 
it can boldly say, ''If God be for me, who can be 
against me?" ''I am persuaded, that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, 
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, shall ever be able to separate me from 
the love of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord."* 

4. But not only is this a spiritual and nutrimental 
feast, suited to all, but all need it, and must perish 
without it. There is no other name given under 
heaven, whereby we can be saved, but the name of 
Christ. There is but one way of access for guilty 

* Romans viii. 38, 39. 
20 



234 



THE PARABLE 



man to the throne of a holy God, and that is through 
the rent vail of the Redeemer's flesh. There is but 
one expiation for sin, and that is by the offering of 
Jesus Christ once for all. There is but one way of 
obtaining that moral renovation and purity which 
fits for the presence of God and the joys of the 
beatific vision, and that is by the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven — sent down at the intercession 
of Jesus Christ. There is but One who can guide 
us safely through the devious paths of time, 'supply 
our wants on our journey, protect us from danger, 
comfort us in sorrow, strengthen us in duty, and 
bring us safely to the land of rest, and that One is 
the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls. Oh, then, 
why not -come to his feast ? Why not freely em- 
brace Jesus Christ, as he is freely offered to you in 
the gospel of grace? 

Yea, strange as it may sound in the ears of many, 
all need this feast, and must perish without it. 
Eternal famine will prey upon you and consume 
ydu, else. Pause, O guilty, condemned and lost 
one, and ask: *^ What is my condition if I have no 
interest in the great salvation, no interest in par- 
doning mercy and in justifying righteousness and 
sanctifying grace ? No interest in the love of God, 
or the joys of heaven ? What, then, are my present 
joys, what my future hopes, and what my final des- 
tiny? O men of earth, under the awful curse of 
God ! bread perhaps you have, and bread in abund- 
ance ; but it is not that living bread. It is that 
bread upon which you may feed, but starve and die. 
To depend only upon it is like feeding the soul on 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 235 

husks, or on the dry east wind. There are many 
who have this bread, and have it in abundance—- 
many who clothe themselves in purple and fine 
linen, and fare sumptuously every day; who wash 
their steps with butter, and whose rocks pour out 
rivers of oil; who send forth their little ones as a 
flock ; whose children dance ; who spend their days 
in wealth, taking up the timbrel and harp, and 
rejoicing at the sound of the organ. "^ Wealth and 
luxury and gorgeous splendor they have in abund- 
ance. Every clime and country is laid under con- 
tribution to supply the rich treasure-seeker with 
comforts and luxuries. From where the Cape of 
Good Hope braves the rugged fury of the ceaseless 
tempest and the fierce lashings of the foam-whitened 
wave, to where the storm-tossed Arctic thunders the 
deep bass in nature's anthem to nature's God — all, 
all are taxed and made to minister to the gorgeous 
splendor of his joy-lit halls, and to the delicious 
luxury of his smoking board and flowing bowl. 
And from week to week the feast goes on, and the 
sweet music and the voice of joyous revelry break 
in upon the still ear of sleeping midnight, and starts 
her drowsy pulse to a quicker pace. And surely 
these favorites of fortune, these sons of elegance and 
genius, of wealth and splendor, have bread enough 
and to spare. Surely they are rich and increased 
in goods, and have need of nothing. Surely now, 
that they are full, they can afford to forget God, 
and arrogantly treat the preachers and the preaching 
of the gospel, and neglect the feast. But look ! 

^- Job xxi. 11-13. 



236 



THE PARABLE 



yonder on that lovely face which blushes at its own 
queenly beauty; and yonder, on that broad and 
manly brow, I see the worm of want and famine 
gnawing noiselessly and secretly. Full well it 
revels. It grows and fattens on those earth-fed 
frames. And hark! the vail of the future is raised, 
and from yon gorgeous, festal chambers of wealth 
and taste and splendor, I hear a starving cry for 
food! Full well the worm has done his work. 
Those forms of beauty and strength, on the very 
verge of the grave, are pining, aye, perishing^ for 
food. In the midst of wealth and friends and 
family; in the midst of music and revelry, by the 
very side of the smoking board and flowing bowl, 
they are starving to death ; and the last sound 
that comes gurgling forth in their gasping effort 
for breath is a heart-rending wail for food, the food 
by which souls live. And another sound comes; it 
comes looming from beyond the bounds of time; it 
comes wailing up with the groans and bowlings of 
Tophet below ! It is a sound of mingled curses and 
cries for bread ! bread ! 

Away with the treacherous promises of earth ! 
Away with the fallacious vanities of time ! Away 
with the gilded apples of Sodom ! with the beautiful 
mirage of the desert ! What profit in wealth and 
splendor and pleasure, which deceive to destroy ! 

O my God, give me to eat the food of life eternal ! 
Give me those riches which shall not make to them- 
selves wings and fly away and vanish in my hour of 
need — that honor and glory and splendor which are 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 



237 



incorruptible and undefiled, that fadeth not away, 
but are reserved in heaven forever. 

And now, dear immortal friends and neighbors, 
will you longer refuse to come to this feast of sal- 
vation ? Will you persist in saying that you arc 
rich and increased in goods and have need of 
nothing, when you know that you are poor and 
miserable and blind and naked ? Oh, why will you 
delay? Come to this feast. Come to the Savior 
whom I offer you, for you do need to be saved. 
While life lasts, while reason retains her seat in 
your brain, while God is still on mercy-treating 
terms, and still offering to be gracious; ere the day 
of your merciful visitation passes forever; ere your 
heart is clean hardened and your consciences clean 
seared and the Holy Spirit clean gone, embrace the 
offers of everlasting life. Ere your riches make to 
themselves wings and fly away ; ere your gold and 
silver are cankered and garments eaten by the 
moth; ere the God of heaven take from you the 
whole stay of water and the whole staff of bread ; 
and while yet the voice of mercy calls, come, come 
to the feast. You need it, and God invites you ! 
Yea, come, come and eat, O friends ; drink, yea, 
drink abundantly, O beloved, of the bread and the 
water which nourish into life eternal. Come, for 
you are welcome, and if you eat this food, you shall 
live forever. 

II. And now, a word as to the coming and the 
eating. You come and you eat by faith, and by 
faith alone. It is faith in Christ Jesus which unites 
you to him, and makes you partaker of his fullness. 



238 ^^^ PARABLE 

You become the sons of God by faith in him. It is 
by faith in Christ that you obtain the pardon of your 
sins and an inheritance among those that are sanc- 
tified. Faith is the turning point of your salvation. 
He that beheveth and is baptized shall be saved, 
but he that believeth not shall be damned. He 
that believeth hath life, and he that believeth not 
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on 
him. Faith in Christ infallibly secures all covenant 
blessings to him that believeth. But you ask, What 
is this faith ? What is it to believe in Jesus Christ 
to the saving of the soul? Only this: to believe in 
the gospel as a message from heaven, and in your 
soul cordially to embrace it. It is to believe that 
Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners, able and willing 
to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by 
him, and truly consent to take him for their Savior, 
and to rely only on him for salvation. This is to 
come to the feast. This is to eat it. This is to 
secure salvation. He offers to save you, and he 
promises that if you will accede to the offer he will 
save you. No matter how wicked has been your 
life, nor how disordered your heart, if you really 
wish salvation, and will take him for a Savior, he will 
save you. You are not able to help yourself, but 
he declares, if you will only trust him, he will help 
you. As a Prophet, he will teach you the way of 
salvation, and fill your mind with heavenly light. 
As an atoning High Priest, he offers himself a vic- 
tim on the altar of divine justice in your stead, and 
with his own blood will expiate your sins. As an 
interceding High Priest, he will be your advocate in 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 



239 



heaven, obtain acceptance for your person, and 
your services before God, and by his all-prevaihng 
prayers obtain all the blessings of salvation for you, 
from his Father and your Father, his God and your 
God. As a great King he will rule in you and reign 
over you ; he will subdue your stubborn and rebell- 
ious heart, entirely to his love and service, and 
protect and deliver you from all dangers, enemies 
and sins, and present you faultless at last in the 
presence of his Father. All this he offers and prom- 
ises to do. And now faith is simply to take him at 
his word ; to believe he is able and willing to do it, 
and rest your everlasting all in confidence upon 
him. 

And, oh, what confidence is his word fitted to 
inspire! Heaven and earth may pass away, and 
shall pass away, but his word shall not pass away, 
until all be fulfilled. 

Oh, then, poor, ignorant, guilty, polluted, con- 
demned, lost men and women, commit your souls 
to Christ, that you may be saved. Do so, confi- 
dently relying upon his word. Give doubts and fears 
to the winds. Know that he is able and faithful 
who hath promised. Yea, trust in the Lord forever; 
for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. 
And know, for your consolation, that if you trust in 
him, you shall never be ashamed of your confi- 
dence; know that whoso trusteth in the Lord, 
mercy shall compass him about. 

This, then, is the whole mystery of faith. It is 
simply believing what the Bible says of Christ and 
trusting in him to perform it. It is merely a casting 



240 "^HE PARABLE 

of all your burdens upon him, that he may sustain 
you. The awakened soul realizes that it is in a 
famishing and perishing condition. But by faith it 
sees Christ to be the bread of life, and suddenly it 
rejoices as one that finds a great, strong spoil; and 
it comes and eats and lives. 

And it lives over again the history of the Israel- 
ites, in their deliverance from the land of Egypt 
and their journey to the promised land. Like them, 
it is in a state of bondage, under the guilt and 
power of sin, and it can do nothing. But when it 
cries out to God, under a felt sense of its misery, 
he hears and pities and frees it, and brings it out 
of the spiritual Egypt, through the Red Sea of 
regeneration, into a state of grace and liberty. 
But though renewed and restored to divine favor, 
and put under divine guidance, its course to the 
Canaan of rest lies through a wilderness ; a great 
howling wilderness; a wilderness of sin; a great, 
moral Sahara ; where no flower blooms and no ver- 
dure quickens, except by a divine and supernatural 
impulse. He is delivered from a state of nature, 
and brought into the pale of. the kingdom of grace, 
but his way to heaven lies through a wicked world 
of sins and snares and sorrows. Israel's journey was 
beautifully typical of this. Their way to Canaan 
lay through a desert, a terrible, howling wilderness. 
And save where here and there, some green oasis, 
like an islet in the sea, relieved the weary eye, all 
was a terrible and gloomy and barren waste^far as 
the eye could reach, not a house, or a tree, or a 
shrub, or a blade of grass to be seen ; save, where 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 



241 



now and then, a wild prickly thorn waved in the 
passing wind, or a tall,, shaggy thistle tinged, with a 
deeper hue, the gloomy, hot and sterile desolation. 
Around the base of the thunder-gashed Sinai, to 
the eye of the traveler, the desert looks as if it were 
still mute with terror at the remembrance of a mani- 
fested God ; or, rather, as if this were the place 
where Satan landed first, when fresh from hell, with 
cindered feet and fire-blasted wings, he came to 
tempt the primal pair and darken our Eden home. 
And through this were the Israelites to pass, them- 
selves, their families, their flocks, and herds. But 
how are they to obtain water and bread? Be- 
hold ! He smote the rock, and the floods gushed 
forth and ran in the desert like a stream ! He com- 
manded the winds of heaven, and they brought 
quails as thick as dust, around about their tabernacle 
and tents. He rained manna upon them ; bread 
from heaven. Man did eat angels' food."^ 

Behold here a type of the Christian's journey to 
heaven. He, too, is traveling through a world, 
blasted by sin and barren of good ; a world fitly des- 
ignated ''the desert of sin." He feels the choking 
of thirst and the gnawing of hunger. He looks 
around in his nakedness and helplessness; but no 
water or bread meets his eye ; not even a drop or a 
root, to slake the one or satiate the ..other. He raises 
a prayer for bread, and Jesus answers^ ''My flesh is 
meat indeed." He cries for water, and Jesus an- 
swers, ''Whosoever drinketh of the water that I 
shall give him shall never thirst, "f He eats and 

'^' Psalm Ixxviii. 15-28. t ]ohn vi. 55 ; iy. 14. 
2X 



242 



THE PARABLE 



drinks to the full, and feels that he shall hve forever. 
His strength recruited ; his courage reinspired ; the 
pillar of cloud to guide him ; invisible, but almighty 
arms around him ; all regardless of the scorching 
sun and burning sands, the weary distance or the 
manifold obstacles, the joyful pilgrim wends his way 
onward with unwearied steps to the Canaan above. 
It matters not to him that the desert is barren, for 
Jesus is his bread ; or that he knows no well or 
spring for many a weary mile, for he drinks of the 
Rock that follows him by the way, which Rock is 
Christ. Tell him of the fiery serpent, whose sting 
is fatal, and he will smile, as he answers, ** There is 
a brazen serpent too,'' and on he goes, rejoicing in 
his confidence and hope. Many an enemy he meets 
and many a conflict has he ; but strengthened by 
the food on which he feeds, he still comes off con- 
queror and more than conqueror. His soul treads 
down strength ; his hands are taught to war ; and 
his arms to break bows of steel in pieces; and at 
the end of his journey he exclaims, *' I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept 
the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a 
crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the right- 
eous judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me 
only, but unto all them also that love his appear- 
ing. ■* **0 death, where is thy sting? O grave, 
where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who 
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, "t 

It is thus that, by faith, the saint feeds on this 

'■'• 2 Timothy iv. 7, 8. t 1 Corinthians xv. 55, 57. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 



243 



feast continually, and obtains from the Redeemer 
every blessing that he needs. 

III. But who is he that is thus at liberty to come 
to this gospel feast and receive the blessings of sal* 
vation ? Who is he, who is privileged to come and 
feed upon this feast of pardoning mercy, of justify- 
ing righteousness and sanctifying grace ; of light 
in darkness; strength in weakness; consolation in 
trouble; aid in duty; deliverance in danger; and all 
other good things which the soul needs for its tem- 
poral, spiritual and eternal welfare? Do you say, 
**Who?" My answer is, '* I invite you all.'' God 
invites you all. Whosoever will, let him come and 
take the water of life freely. "^ And if I am asked, 
Who is the happy individual who has come to this 
feast and eaten, and how may he be known ? I 
answer, He is a man who has felt hunger. He is a 
man who has been made sensible of his fallen and 
miserable condition. He is a man who has heard 
the gospel and considered it well; who is sensible 
that he needs just such a Savior as is therein re- 
vealed to him, and offered to his acceptance ; and 
has cordially embraced him and his salvation. He 
is a man, consequently, who has repented and turned 
to God ; who has renounced the service of the 
world, the flesh, and Satan ; who earnestly longs 
for and desires salvation above all things. He 
is, moreover, a humble man ; a man who has no 
confidence in his own righteousness or his own 
strength ; but who counts all his own merit as 
dung that he may be found in Christ, not having 

^ Revelalion xxii. 17. 



244 ^^^ PARABLE 

his own righteousness, but that of Jesus Christ.* 
He is a man who Hves and labors for heaven ; who 
denies all ungodliness and worldly lusts ; who in- 
dulges in no known sin; who desires to purge him- 
self from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit, 
perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. 

Is this your character? I trust and hope some 
here can say, **It is/* But I fear that some here 
can not in truth say so. And now, will you con- 
tinue longer in a state of ruin ? Will you longer 
refuse this feast ? Consider what has been truth- 
fully, scripturally, said of it; that it is a feast spirit- 
ual, nutrimental» divine, suited to all, needed by all; 
and that all must pine in want and perish forever 
without it. Come, for why will ye die? ** And the 
Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that 
heareth say. Come. And let him that is athirst 
come. And whosoever will, let him take the water 
of life freely. "t 

^^ Philippians iii. 8, 9. t Revelation xxii. 17. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 245 



SERMON XIV. 



The Parable of the Royal Mar- 



riage Feast. 

MATTHEW XXII. 5. 
{Second Sermon.) 



This parable, as has already been intimated, is 
entirely different from the one recorded in the four- 
teenth chapter of Luke. True, the same image 
runs through both, that of a festival ; yet they are 
different. For they were spoken on different occa- 
sions ; that at a festival, this in the temple. That 
was delivered at an earlier period of our Lord's 
history, this at a later. When that was delivered, 
the Jews manifested a more friendly disposition, and 
hence their character is drawn in the parable in 
softer colors. But when this parable was spoken, 
their enmity was ready to break out into open vio- 
lence. And in accordance with this altered state of 
facts, the parable is varied. There, they offended a 
host, here a King ; there, they civilly excused them- 
selves, here they treat the invitation with contempt, 



246 THE PARABLE 

and the messengers with hostihty ; there, the con- 
duct of the invited was unkind, here it was high 
treason ; there, they are punished by exclusion from 
the feast, here by that and the avenging armies of 
the great King, Still, much that has been said in 
exposition of the previous parable, will serve to cast 
light upon this and need not be repeated. I desire, 
tlierefore, to call your attention to the fifth verse: 
*' But they made light of it, and went their ways, 
oiie to his farm, another to his merchandise." 

Increasing in wickedness, they did not deign 
longer to offer excuses for rejecting the gospel and 
continuing in a life of sin, but openly made light of 
the offered redemption. Not that they made sport 
of it or derided it, but (Greek, amelasantes) they 
were heedless, and stupidly indifferent toward it. 
It made no impression upon them, and so they went 
their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchand- 
ise. That is, one of them was rich and full of this 
world's goods, and did not feel his need of living 
upon God and his fullness ; and the other, though 
not rich, was struggling to become so ; that is, he 
was looking to the broken reeds and cisterns of 
earth for his support and his joy, and not unto God. 
The causes of their conduct were : 

I. Ignorance. Alas! that men are so ignorant of 
their chief good and of the way to attain it ; so 
ignorant of the emptiness and vanity of earth, and 
of the fullness of Christ and God. Did they but 
know things, as they really are, they would die to 
the world and live to God — they would not crucify 
the Lord of glory — they would not call evil good, 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 247 

nor good evil. They would arise in their misery 
and cry mightily to God, and he would give them 
that living water, and they would drink, and thirst 
no more forever. But the natural man has no idea 
of any repose, or peace, or security, or fullness of 
joy, but such as is of the earth, earthy. 

1. Insensibility to divine things. They are utterly 
unconscious of their real character and state. They 
do not feel that they are spiritually diseased, and 
need healing ; that they are dead, and need life ; 
guilty, and need pardon ; unholy, and need cleans- 
ing; weak, and need strength; blind, and need guid- 
ance ; and, therefore, they never come to God, or 
Christ, for anything, and when these blessings are 
offered, '' they make light of it.'' 

2. And they are, not only insensible of their need 
of divine blessings, but are indisposed toward them. 
Their hearts say : '' Who will show us any good" 
in these thing ; and they say to God: ''Depart from 
us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." 
Christ is to them, ''as a root out of a dry ground, 
having no form nor comeliness ; and when they see 
him, there is no beauty that they should desire him. " 
As Israel, with the manna, their souls loathe the 
bread of heaven. 

3. And some there are, who have a positive enmity 
against the whole gospel scheme. In their self- 
righteousness, pride and blindness they maintain 
that they are not sinners against God, and that they 
need no Savior or salvation. With infinite compla- 
cency, they reflect upon their many fancied virtues, 
and refuse the offered righteousness and the offered 



248 THE PARABLE 

sanctification. Of course, they make light of the gos- 
pel ; they are utterly insensible and heedless of all it 
has to teach, or offer, and are angry with the Bible, 
because it accuses them of guilt and unholiness, and 
so they stop their ears against it. These self-right- 
eous, infidel Pharisees are the most hopeless of all. 
Stoutly maintaining that their righteousness is good 
enough for God, and their hearts pure and pious 
enough for him and heaven, they reject the gospel 
scheme. 

Other men admit they are sinners, but these will 
not. Others confess that they are unholy, but 
these men maintain that they are holy enough. 
**Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye 
escape the damnation of hell?" "^ 

II. But that I may not labor in vain; that this 
discourse may have a practical bearing upon us all, 
I come to inquire who are they who make light of 
the gospel? And this is the more important, as 
many who profess it and seem to embrace it, and 
who try to suppose they have embraced it, do really 
make light of it. And now, feeling that I am en- 
gaged in a work of awful and solemn importance, I 
desire your closest attention, and the aid of your 
prayers. While I describe the various classes who 
make light of it, let every hearer continually ask, 
*Ts it I?'' If we judge ourselves, and repent, we 
shall not be judged; but if we deceive ourselves, we 
are forever undone. It is to me an awful thought 
that there may be some in this congregation who 
are deceiving and destroying themselves with a false 

* Matthew xxiii. 33. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST, 249 

hope ; that at the judgment day we will probably 
yield some to swell the number of that wretched 
throng, to whom the Judge shall say, **I never 
knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. '"^^ 
Let us then see and know of a surety, this day, 
whether we are '* making light" of the gospel or 
not. 

I. That which we highly prize has a frequent and 
warm place in our thoughts. It is often in our 
minds. But not so with that about which we are 
indifferent. Now, what think ye of Christ and his 
salvation ? Is it the first thing in your mind when 
you awake in the morning and the last when you 
go to sleep at night ? Do your thoughts and 
affections, again and again, break away from the 
cares and labors of the day, and soar away to God 
and eternity, to Christ and salvation? And are 
these thoughts sweet, and do they burn within you ? 
Is the name of Jesus as ointment poured forth, and 
his countenance as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars? 
Is his word your meditation day and night, and as 
sweet to your mouth as honey, yea, as honey in the 
honey-comb? Recollect for one moment. How 
often have you remembered God, with reverent, 
fervent joy, during the past week? How often, 
how long, and how delightfully has he occupied 
your thoughts during this sacred morning? And 
with what peace and joy and heavenly hunger and 
hope has your soul been filled ? Alas, alas, a sad 
retrospect ! You have been filled in head and heart 
with a trooping multitude of thoughts ; thoughts of 

* Matthew vii. 23. 



250 'J'liE PARABLE 

business and of gain ; thoughts of learning and am- 
bition ; thoughts of family, fields and flocks ; of 
clerks, stores and shops; of clients and customers; 
of friendship and anger ; thoughts of love and lust. 
A steady stream of busy, burning thoughts have 
rushed through all the channels of the soul, but the 
gospel feast was not in all your thoughts, or, if it 
was, only for a moment, and then cold and dull and 
lifeless. No ! they did not occupy the first and 
great place in your heart. You know it ; and by 
this test know that you make light of the gospel. 
Know that you are stupid and insensible and cold 
and dead ! Know that however much you may 
have the form of godliness, you are denying the 
power thereof, and need to be converted to God. 
Arise and cry mightily to him, and give him no rest 
until he fill your heart with his love. 

2. That which we highly esteem, and is much 
in our thoughts, will be a frequent and delightful 
theme of conversation. ''Out of the abundance 
of the heart the mouth speaketh. " And what, my 
hearers, is the general character of your conversa- 
tion? Is it on heaven or on earth? Is it carnal or 
spiritual? How many professors of religion are 
intelligent and eloquent on every thing pertaining to 
earth and time, who have almost never a word on 
practical and experimental religion ? Familiar with 
politics and science, with the current news and the 
social, political and economical condition of the 
various nations of the world ; well informed even' 
concerning the various religious denominations and 
the various benevolent movements of Christendom ; 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST, 



251 



able to converse fluently upon them all ; they are 
utterly unable to talk upon the work of Christ in 
the souls of men, and especially of that work in 
their own hearts. Here they hesitate, and are at a 
loss. Here they stammer, and blush and grow 
dumb. They can not say, with the singer of Israel, 
*'Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will 
declare what he hath done for my soul."^ *'My 
heart is inditing a good matter : The things that I 
speak concern the King; my tongue shall be as the 
pen of a ready writer."f '* While I live I will praise 
the Lord ; I will sing paises unto my God while I 
have any being. "J If you would know the true 
state of your hearts in reference to the gospel feast, 
just think for a little what is the general subject 
and tenor of your thoughts. And that I may not 
impose a task too great, take the week that has 
passed as a specimen. Words you have spoken, 
and words in abundance ; words of praise and* cen- 
sure ; of encouragement and discouragement ; of 
truth and falsehood ; of slander and detraction ; 
of friendship and hatred ; of business and care ; and, 
it may be, words, cold, formal words of bodily wor- 
ship. But has your conversation been with grace, 
seasoned with salt, that it might minister grace to 
the hearers? Hath your tongue before both God 
and man dwelt with rapture on this feast ? Is that 
a theme which anoints your lips with honey, and 
sets your breath on fire? Again I say, examine, 
consider well. For by thy words thou shalt be 



* Psalm Ixvi. 16. t Psalm xlv. i. :j: Psalm cxlvi. 2. 



252 THE PARABLE 

ju«=;tified, and by thy words thou shalt be con- 
demned. 

3. Nor let it be forgotten that men labor and 
travail to obtain that which they highly esteem, and 
make but little effort to obtain that which they set 
light by. So it is here. ''The kingdom of heaven 
is like unto treasure hid in a field ; the which when 
a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof 
goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that 
field. ''^ Our efforts to obtain life eternal, and to 
make it sure, will be in proportion to our estimate 
of its importance. By how far we are from making 
light of it in our hearts, by so far will we be from 
making light of it in our practical and every-day 
life. If, in our souls, we esteem it ''the one thing 
needful" and "the chief end of man," we will in 
our lives act accordingly. Now, dear friends, how 
is it with you ? How will your lives bear this text ? 
Should you die to-night, how many of you can tell 
how it would go with you ? How many of you 
have made your calling and election sure? Nay! 
many of you are in doubt of your final salvation, 
and the fears of many more are stronger than their 
hopes. And what is your conduct under such cir- 
cumstances? Are you filled with a holy and terri- 
ble dread of reprobation? And are you laboring 
with all the means in your power to make your call- 
ing and election sure ? Do you resolve that you 
will not go into your house, nor rest in your bed, 
and that your eyes shall not take sleep, nor your 
eyelids slumber, until you have found a place of 

* Matthew xiii. 44. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 253 

habitation in your hearts for the mighty God of 
Jacob ? 

Oh, if we only knew the worth of a soul, its dan- 
ger and misery in a state of nature, we would feel 
and act differently. I declare unto you, that in my 
most serious hours, I wonder at sinners, and I 
wonder at those who are in a state of incertitude 
as to their final destiny. I wonder that men can 
eat, or drink, or sleep, or attend to any secular 
cares, while they believe or feel themselves to be 
under the wrath of God. Strange to see men 
laugh or jest, or be merry, who may the next hour 
be lost forever! Wondrous strange to see sinners 
trifle, while they stand on the slippery edge of 
damnation ! The bare thought of the judgment and 
of the smoke of everlasting torment, ascending, 
day and night, forever and ever, is enough to 
deprive one of sleep, and were it not for the aton- 
ing blood of Christ of reason too. And surely it 
is because you make light of these things that you 
are able to make light of the atonement that offers 
you deliverance from them. And in my most seri- 
ous and pungent sermons, when God most moves 
me and enables me to get nearest to your con- 
sciences, while I set life and death, heaven and hell, 
most vividly before you, I declare to you that I 
wonder at my coldness. I am ashamed of my 
weakness. I feel as if I could say nothing at all 
worthy of my solemn and awful theme. And when 
I meet you and part from you, without entreating 
you to be reconciled to God ; when I spend a little 
while with you, in general conversation, and then 



254 ^ THE PARABLE 

leave you, without earnestly entreating you, with* 
out, as it were, laying hold of you, to pull you out 
of the fire and compelling you with a holy violence 
to come to this feast, I feel as if I had been guilty 
of the blood of your souls. 

But, oh, dear friends, be entreated now, at length, 
to awake, to arise, and cry mightily to God. Make 
one great and persistent effort to obey the gospel. 
Look up to God in Christ to help you and put 
strength in you ; for as God liveth, and your soul 
liveth, there is but a step between you and death. 
Oh, if we valued salvation aright, how diligent 
would we be in using all means to obtain it ! How 
we would watch and pray against danger I How we 
would mortify the flesh with the affections and lusts ! 
How holy would we be in all our walk and conver- 
sation! How earnestly hear and study the word! 
How earnestly and continually pray! How careful 
in keeping our hearts ; in avoiding temptation ! How 
diligent in stirring up the grace of God ! This one 
thing would we do ; forgetting the things which are 
behind, and reaching forward to those that are be- 
fore, we w^ould press to the mark, for the prize of 
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
One thing would we desire and seek to obtain that 
we might dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 
But one thing then would be needful ; and we would 
seek first and mainly the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness, knowing that all things else would be 
added to us. 

But now it requires but little observation to see 
that many professors are not with their whole hearts 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 255 

intently set on salvation. It is easy to see that 
their hearts and their lives are worldly and carnal. 
They are of the earth, earthy, and speak of the 
earth. Their conversation and their labors are for 
gain and pleasure, or ambition, and not for life 
eternal. Men and women, pilgrims journeying to 
a judgment seat, and soon to be at the end of your 
journey, consider whether in the midst of all your 
professions you are not making light of the gospel 
of Jesus Christ— making light of the love and mercy 
and grace of God— making light of eternity and of 
your soul's salvation ! 

4. That which we highly prize we labor to obtain 
for others, especially for our families and friends ; 
but not so with that we set light store by. The cov- 
etous parent labors to obtain wealth for his children. 
The vain, frivolous woman is chiefly careful to give 
her daughter an accomplished and fashionable edu- 
cation. How would your Christianity bear such a 
test as this ? Are you laboring diligently for the sal- 
vation of your children, domestics, neighbors, and 
acquaintances? Are you doing all you can to bring 
your children up in the nurture and admonition of 
the Lord? Do you pray much with them and for 
them ? Do you instruct them by example, as well 
as by precept? Do you make your houses, houses 
of God ? And are the altar and the daily sacrifice 
within your dwelling? Do you walk with a perfect 
heart within your homes? Is it the deepest desire 
and prayer of your heart that your child's soul may 
live before God? Is your daily life such that your 
children and domestics can see that you prize their 



256 ^HE PARABLE 

salvation above every thing else ? Oh, how many 
children of professors will rise up in judgment 
against their parents and guardians, and testify 
against them to their confusion ! O parents ! if you 
did not in your hearts make light of salvation; if it 
were a weighty thing with you ; if it had all that 
solemnity and earnestness which it justly challenges 
at your hands, you would feel and act far differently 
from what you do now. Comparatively, you would 
care little whether your children were rich or poor, 
honored or despised, provided you could see them 
fearing God and walking in his ways. A desire 
to see them saved, to meet them in heaven and walk 
with them in white forever, would be for them 
your greatest desire ; this the labor and prayer of 
your soul. And so, too, with your neighbors and 
friends, strangers and heathen. You would be anx- 
iously and daily inquiring how you might do them 
good ; how you might pull them out of the fire ; 
how turn them to God ; and you would grudge no 
labor, no sacrifice. You would spend money and 
time and labor like water. You would surrender 
yourselves and your childrent to labor in this under- 
taking. And when any scheme for spreading the 
gospel was presented, you would need no arguments 
and no appeals to awaken your sympathies and call 
forth your energies. Your only inquiries would be, 
**Is it scriptural? Is it feasible? Can I do any- 
thing in any way to advance it?" You know this is 
so. You know that if professors generally, and 
yourselves especially, did not make too light of the 
gospel ; if you viewed it as God \v^ho gave his own 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 



257 



Son, or Christ, who gave himself, views it ; as the 
Christians converted at the Pentecost viewed it ; or 
as the Holy Scriptures require yoii to view it, you 
would be wholly intent on spreading it in the world 
and in converting men to God, 

5. And all this you would do cheerfully and joy- 
fully. For what men highly prize they can not buy 
too dear ; but they will not give much for what they 
lightly esteem. 

If you value salvation, as you should, there is 
nothing that you will, not do to attain it. You will 
repent, believe and obey the gospel. You will deny 
yourselves all ungodliness and fleshly lusts. You 
will mortify your members which are on the earth — 
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil 
concupiscence and covetousness, which is idolatry- 
for which, things' sake the wrath of God cometh on 
the children of disobedience;^ and as He who call- 
eth you is holy, so would you be holy in all manner 
of conversation, f 

By this test also you may try yourselves. When 
you are called to salvation, through Christ, you are 
called to part with everything inconsistent there- 
with ; and yet many of you will not do this. You 
are Cc^Ued to part with ''all bitterness, and wrath, 
and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, with all 
malice ;"J and yet many of you will not do it. You 
are called to put away all lying and cheating and 
swearing and Sabbath-breaking and drunkenness and 
revelings and banquetings ; all pride and vanity ; 
boastings and whisperings and envyings; and to 

^5* Colossians iii. 5, 6. '\ 1 Peter i. 15. % Ephesians iv. 31. 
22 



258 THE PARABLE 

cultivate the opposite virtues; and yet many of you 
will not do this. In a word, you are called to cast 
aside every weight, and especially your besetting 
sins, that you may run with patience the race that is 
set before you in the gospel ; and yet many of you 
will not do it. So long as you can follow God 
and mammon, Christ and the flesh, you follow 
both; but when you are required to part from one 
or the other, you part with Christ. Whenever your 
religion stands in the way of your wickedness; 
whenever your Bible and conscience stand in the 
way of your profit, or your pleasures, or your ambi- 
tion, then you follow sin, and sacrifice Christ. Or, 
if you outwardly follow Christ, you do so reluct- 
antly, not from love, but from fear and shame ; while 
your heart follows your sin. If these things be so, 
your religion is vain. It will not stand in the judg- 
ment. **No man can serve two masters: for either 
he will hate the one, and love the other ; or else he 
will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye can 
not serve God and mammon.'"''^ And does not the 
man who takes such courses make light of salvation? 
He loves the world and the things thereof, and he 
labors to obtain them. He "considers nothing he 
can do too great an effort; but we can never per- 
suade him to be fully in earnest about his soul. 
Follow him into his family. How cold and lifeless 
are his family devotions. Follow him to his closet, 
and do you find his soul melted and poured out in 
contrite sighs and tears ; in fervent, wrestling prayers ; 
in pious hearty resolutions? Follow him into the 

••• Matthew vi. 24. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 259 

world, and is God in all his thoughts ? Far from it. 
And now does not this man make light of salvation? 
Is he in earnest about the eternal world? Does he 
act as a pilgrim and a stranger here ? as the soldier 
of Christ, who fights the good fight of faith, in a 
battle where his soul is at stake ? Nay! does he not 
often ridicule those who are thus conscientious? 
Does he not often say, *' Where is the need of 
taking so much pains ?" Does he not often charge 
the minister, who preaches faithfully the word, with 
being too strict, exacting too much ; raising the 
standard of duty too high, just as if it were in his 
power to lower it at his pleasure ? 

And now what can you, what can any one, think 
of such a man, even if that one should be himself, 
except that he is making light of the gospel of Christ? 

11. But I have dwelt sufficiently long on this 
point. I have offered sufficient helps, by which 
you may test your character, and now what is the 
result? Are not some of you forced to plead 
guilty ? Alas ! I know true and sincere Christians 
will be the first to condemn themselves. But still I 
hope there are those that while they acknowledge 
they are not so much in earnest as they ought to be, 
and as they desire to be, can, nevertheless, before 
God, say that they are in earnest ; that if they were 
in earnest about anything in their lives, they are in 
earnest about this. I hope there are those who can, 
like Peter, appeal to their Savior, saying: *'Lord, 
thou knowest all things ; thou knowest that I love 
thee."* 



* John xxi. 17. 



260 ^^^^ PARABLE 

But are there not some here, many, alas ! who 
are convinced in their hearts, that they are the per- 
sons meant in the text ; that they have in very 
deed made light of the gospel ; and that they are 
uninterested in the great salvation? Alas, I fear 
there are many ! 

And now will you any longer continue in a life 
of sin? If so, consider in addition to all I have 
said of a life of sin — 

1st. That you make light of Him who did not 
make light of you. 

2d. That you make light of matters of the great- 
est importance. 

3d. That it is your own salvation you make light 
of. 

4th. That you neglect all^ for perishing trifles. 

5th. That the time approaches quickly when you 
will not make light of it. 

6th. That no other being makes light of it — 
neither God, nor the Holy Spirit, nor Christ, nor 
angels, nor saints in heaven, nor saints on earth, 
nor devils. All, all are in earnest, but you. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 26 1 



SERMON XV. 

f^ARABLES OF THE MaRRIAGE FeAST 
AND Ge\EAT JSUPPEB\^ 

MATTHEW XXII. I-I3, AND LUKE XIV. 16-24. 
{Third Sermon.) 



By the ''feast*' or ''supper'* in these parables, 
I need scarcely repeat, the blessings of salvation are 
intended. It is a favorite comparison with the 
Scriptures, and one which is often used. The manna 
from heaven and the water from the rock, by which 
the Church in the wilderness was nourished and 
refreshed, represent the grace of Christ, by which 
believers are nurtured into the fullness of spiritual 
manhood and ripened for heaven. And the prom- 
ised land itself; that land so fat and so blessed; a 
land that drank in the suns and showers of heaven ; 
upon which God set the loving eyes of his bountiful 
providence from year's end to year's end ; which 
flowed with milk and honey ; whose stones were iron 
and out of whose mountains one might dig brass ; 
where you might eat bre^d without scarceness and 



262 THE PARABLES 

not lack any thing at all; a land blessed by the pre- 
cious things brought forth by the sun ; with the 
precious things put forth by the moon ; with the 
chief things of the ancient mountains and the pre- 
cious things of the lasting hills, and with the good 
will of Him that dwelt in the bush ; where butter of 
kine and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs and rams 
of the breed of Bashan, and goats with the fat of 
the kidneys of wheat, * were to be the daily food of 
an obedient and holy people — this land, I say, with 
all its beauty and fullness, was but the dim, earthly 
type of the blessings of the beatific vision. It was 
the terrestrial shadow of the rest and the rejoicing, 
which are in reversion for the people of God. Often 
does the Savior represent the blessings of salvation 
as the ''bread of life," ''the bread from heaven,'* 
and "his flesh as meat indeed, and his blood as 
drink indeed/' In the book of Proverbs, where 
Wisdom personified stands for Christ, and the spirit- 
ual building erected by her stands for the covenant 
of redemption, with all its rich living heritage of 
treasure, this language is used : ' ' Wisdom hath 
builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven 
pillars : she hath killed her beasts ; she hath min- 
gled her wine ; she hath also furnished her table. 
She hath sent forth her maidens ; she crieth upon the 
highest places of the city, Whoso is simple, let him 
turn in hither; and as for him that wanteth under- 
standing, she saith to him. Come, eat of my bread, 
and drink of the wine which I have mingled, "f 
Isaiah, that evangelical prophet who delights in 

*" Deuteronomy xxxii. 14; xxxiii. 14-16. t Pioverbs ix. 1-5. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST, 263 

every grand and beautiful figure, of course, employs 
this one over and over. Saith he: '*In this moun- 
tain" (/. e., the Church) ''shall the Lord of hosts 
make unto all people a feast of fat things ; of wines 
on the lees ; of fat things full of marrow, of wines on 
the lees well refined."^ And again, when he calls 
men to holiness an'd virtue, through Jesus Christ, his 
language is: ''Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye 
to the waters: and he that hath no money; come 
ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine and milk 
without money and without price. Wherefore do 
ye spend money for that which is not bread? and 
your labor for that which satisfieth not? hearken 
diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, 
and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline 
your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul 
shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant 
with you, even the sure mercies of David, "f 

Again: the mutual fellowship in gifts and graces, 
between Christ and believers, in the covenant of 
redemption, is likened unto a feast. Saith Jesus to 
his Church, " I am come into my garden, my sister, 
my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my 
spice ; I have drunk my wine with my milk : eat, O 
friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved !'';[; 
And again he saith, "Behold, I stand at the door 
and knock : if any man hear my voice, and open 
the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, 
and he with me."§ 

The servants sent forth by Jesus Christ, the Mas- 



"'=■ Isaiah xxv. 6. t Isaiah Iv. 1-3. % Canticles v. I. 
^ Revelation iii. 20. 



264 THE PARABLES 

ter of the house, to call men to the feast, represent, 
in the first place, ministers of the gospel, the twelve 
apostles, the seventy disciples, and all those who in 
every subsequent age have succeeded them in the 
sacred office. For Jesus Christ has not only pur- 
chased the grace of salvation, but he has also or- 
dained the office of the Christian ministry, that 
''this good news and tidings of great joy'' may be 
published and proclaimed abroad, and that men 
everywhere be called to repentance and faith, and 
be instructed in all things which belong to their 
everlasting peace. He hath given apostles, evan- 
gelists and prophets, pastors and teachers, for the 
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the minis- 
try, for the edifying of the body of Christ, and it is 
through their instrumentality that a work of grace 
is carried on in the world, and that men are saved. ^ 
For faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the 
word of God. True! ''Whosoever shall call upon 
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then 
shall they call on him in whom they have not be- 
lieved ? and how shall they believe in him of whom 
they have not heard ? and how shall they hear with- 
out a preacher ? and how shall they preach except 
they be sent ? As it is written, How beautiful are 
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and 
bring glad tidings of good things !"f Christ not 
only instituted the ministry in the beginning, but it 
is his will that it shall be continued unto the end. 
To those sent forth first he gave an injunction to 
transmit their office to worthy successors, saving, 



''' Ephesians iv. 11-13. t Romans x. 13-15. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 265 

'*That which has been intrusted to thee commit 
thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach 
others also, and, lo, I am with you each and always, 
even to the end of the world. ""^ ''My word at thy 
mouth shall not return unto me void, but it shall 
accomplish that which I please and prosper in the 
thing whereto I sent it. "f 

Nor are Christian ministers the only servants 
employed in this work by the great Master. Co- 
operating with them, in every man's soul, is the 
conscience. It, too, is God's servant. By it he 
utters the ''still small voice" to every man's heart, 
who hears the word. With both he Co-operates 
by his holy providences, by his Holy Spirit, by his 
holy angels, and by the living members of his 
Church on earth. By all these agencies and in- 
strumentalities are men called to the gospel feast: — 
called to turn from dumb idols to the service of the 
living God — called from darkness to light — from 
death to life — from sin to holiness, and from hell to 
heaven. 

Let it then be the duty of this hour to note nar- 
rowly the offer and the invitation which is made to 
the sons of men. 

I. There is here made an offer of salvation to 
evefy man. There is to be no distinction and no 
partiality in preaching Christ to the sons of Adam. 
All are lost — all are totally lost — utterly ruined and 
undone. To all is the offer of salvation to be made, 
and to all alike. We are not to preach the gospel 
to the white and withhold it from the black, nor to 



•'• Matthew xxviii. 19, 20. t Isaiah Iv. 11. 
21 



266 ^^^^' PARABLES 

the rich while we withhold it from the poor. We 
are not to go to the virtuous, the intelhgent, the 
influential only, but to the vicious, the ignorant, 
the oppressed, and the down-trodden as welL To 
Jew and Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, bond and 
free ; to the European, Asiatic, African and Ameri- 
can ;. to Celt, Saxon and Slavonian; to the children 
of Shem, Ham and Japheth alike, are the sweet 
sounds of heaven's mercy to be uttered. Upon 
the ears of civilized and savage alike are we to roll 
the numbers of this glad anthem forth. Peace on 
earth, good will to men. To the natives of the cloud- 
capped mountain and the sunny plain, to those 
who battle for life with Arctic snow and storm, and 
those who revel in plenty amid the green and flow- 
ery fields of our own magnificent and variegated 
landscapes, are we to go with the melting story of 
redeeming love. The servants are not to rest from 
their mission, when they have traversed the broad- 
ways and main streets of the city, and made the 
tender of life and glory to the merchant princes, 
who inhabit those palatial residences, but they are 
to go out to the *' lanes and alleys of the city." 
They are not to confine their attention to the moral 
and orderly and virtuous, but to bring *^ the poor, 
the maimed, the halt, and the blind'' as well. 
Yea, they are ''to go out into the high ways 
and hedges" of the whole earth, and bring in 
to the supper of the great God, ''all, as many 
as they can find, both bad and good;" and that 
church, congregation or pastor, that confines at- 
tention and effort exclusively, or mainly, to some 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 267 

class or classes of meiij and neglects others, is far 
from the path of duty. To do, as sonrie minis- 
ters do, confine effort mainly to the children and 
adherents of some one denomination, or tribe, or 
nation, or creed, is to be guilty of little less than 
high treason to God and man. And when poor 
and vicious, black and barbarous persons are in- 
duced, by a living pastor and a living membership, 
to come to the church and attend on the public 
ordinances ; if the people of that congregation are 
too . proud and too fashionable to receive them 
kindly and cordially, and take them by the hand 
and encourage them, and do all they can to 
strengthen and deepen and fix their nascent pur- 
poses of reform — if the congregation feels that 
these poor, degraded people are to be cast out 
of their church or thrust into a corner, sicck a con- 
gregation is ''nigh unto cursing." Those very 
publicans and harlots, those drunkards and gam* 
biers and thieves, bad as they may be, who are thus 
thrust out and treated with contempt or with cool- 
ness, are nearer the kingdom of heaven than these 
proud, self-righteousj hard-hearted Pharisees. There 
is more hope of the salvation of those than of 
these. A true pastor and a true church will always 
act in the spirit of the injunction, ''Go ye into all 
the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 
Go ye, disciple all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." 
All true Christians on earth will join with all the 
ransomed hosts of heaven, in rejoicing over one 
sinner that repenteth, even though that sinner 



268 ^^^ PARABLES 

should have been a pariah before. Nothing is more 
inimical to the interests of the Church and nothing 
more opposite to the Spirit of Christ, than a rich, 
proud, formal, fashionable congregration, which 
makes no effort to preach the gospel to the poor 
and all other men. 

Let us, then, remember that the offer of the gos- 
pel is to be made to all men, to all indiscriminately, 
and without exception. To all and without ex- 
ception. **The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. 
And let him that heareth say. Come. And • let 
him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, 
let him take the water of life freely."* Yea, let 
him. For God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
on him should not perish, but have everlasting 
life, and the Son came not to heal the well, but 
the sick — not to call the righteous, but sinners to 
repentance. 

And hearers, whosoever you be, we do this day, 
in God's great and gracious name, offer you salva- 
tion and pray you in Christ's stead, **be ye recon- 
ciled to God.'* If you will, you may and shall be 
saved. No matter what be your past history, or 
present character, to you is the word of this salva- 
tion sent. If you desire to be saved and turn to 
God and trust in Christ you shall be saved. Jesus is 
no respecter of persons. He has said: **Come unto 
me, all yo. that are heavy laden, and I will give you 
resto"f And lest your crimes, or your depravity, or 
something else, should deter you, he adds: **Him 



* Revelation xxii. 17. t Matthew xi. 28. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST, 269 

that Cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out."* 
**In no wise"- — blessed word! Note it well. On 
no account, for no consideration, will I reject him ! 
I will not cast him out because he is an old sinner, 
or an ignorant, or a hardened, or a backslidden, or 
a poor, or a polluted sinner. Poor, perishing man, 
this is the message we have been commissioned to 
deliver unto you in his name to-day! *' Say unto 
them. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no 
pleasure in the death of the wicked ; but that the 
wicked turn from his way and live ; turn ye, turn 
ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O 
house of Israel? "f 

2. The offer of salvation is full. Not only to 
every man, but a/^// salvation to every man. Sal- 
vation, u e,, deliverance from all evil and the tender 
of all good, is offered to every man. Jesus does 
not offer to do part, if the sinner will do part ; but 
he offers you a full and great salvation ! Have 
you committed many sins, and are you very guilty 
before God, and are you in danger of perishing 
forever from the presence of the Lord, and from the 
glory of his power? Jesus offers to take and bear 
all your sins himself. He offers to suffer all the 
penalty due to you, and thus free you from hell for- 
ever. Are you under legal bondage and terror ? 
Do your sins, frightful in multitude and turpitude, 
red as wTath and black as despair, rise up around 
you, and threaten to crush and cover you forever? 
He offers to bear all your griefs, and carry all your 
sorrows. He offers you full pardon for all. He 

* John vi. 37. X Ezekiel xxxiii. 11. 



270 



THE PARABLES 



offers to remove your sins, as far from you as the 
east is from the west. He says: *'I, even I, am 
he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine 
t)wn sake, and will not remember thy sins/'* He 
says to you, as he said to Israel, on the sandy 
shores of the sounding sea, '* The Egyptians whom 
ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no 
more forever, "f O then guilty man, trembling at 
the base of the lightning-crisped and thunder- 
gashed Sinai, and fearing to come into the burn- 
ing presence of the awful Jehovah, ''Look to me — 
trust me — Come now, and let us reason together, 
saith the Lord : though your sins be as scarlet, they 
shall be as white as snow ; though they be red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool."! 

Trembling son, of Adam born, to you I call. 
To you, I say, in God's and Jesus' name, you are 
offered the pardon of every sin, if you will only trust 
Christ and turn to God. Nor is this all ; you are 
not only offered the instant and full pardon of all 
your sins ; Jesus not only offers to drown the fires 
of hell in the living fountain, flowing from his 
pierced side — He offers you. more. He offers you 
his righteousness. When you stand and tremble at 
the thought of death and of judgment, you feel that 
if you were only righteous ; as righteous as the 
holy law of God requires you to be ; as righteous 
as Adam before he fell ; as righteous as the 
sweet, white-winged, dove-eyed, sweet-voiced angels 
around the throne ; as righteous as Jesus when he 
ascended up on high; as righteous as God himself; 

^' Isaiah xliii. 25. t Exodus xiv. 13. J Isaiah i. 18. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 



271 



then you would not be afraid to die and stand 
before the judgment seat of God! Now, man, 
woman, do you really want to be righteous before 
God? Do you want to be perfectly righteous, 
as righteous as holy Adam, as righteous as elect 
angels, as Jesus Christ himself? Oh would you 
not rejoice and leap for joy at the very thought? 
Behold! I bring you good tidings of great joy! 
Jesus offers to make you righteous. Jesus offers 
you kis righteousness, '' even the righteousness of 
God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and 
upon all them that believe."* 

Be not then in despair in regard to your sins. 
Christ offers you a full pardon for all. Be not in 
despair in regard to your need of righteousness. 
He offers you his righteousness. Come to him ; 
trust your all to him, and yours shall be the unut- 
terable blessedness of the man to whom the Lord 
will not impute iniquity, and to whom he will 
impute righteousness without works, f Yea, trust 
Jesus, and in him you shall have righteousness and 
strength, for his name is ''the Lord our Righteous- 
ness.'* 

Men and women, in God's and Jesus' name, I 
offer you the righteousness of Christ; receive him, 
and then fear death and the judgment seat no 
more at all, ''for he is the end of the law of right- 
eousness to every one that believeth,"J and "there 
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are 
in Christ Jesus. '*§ Plow can there be? Your sins 



'* Romans iii. 22. t Psalm xxxii. i, 2. Romans iv. 6-8, 
J Romans x. 4. ^ Romans viii. 1. 



2J2 THE PARABLES 

are all washed away in his blood ; your iniquities are 
expiated in the atonement of Christ ; your guilt 
removed as far as the east is from the west ; your 
person clothed in the immaculate robes of the risen 
and reigning Jesus, invested with a better right- 
eousness than Adam, or angel, or any celestial crea- 
ture ever had, the righteousness of God received 
by faith in Jesus Christ. How can you be con- 
demned ? 

Nor is this all that Christ offers to do for you. 
He offers to sanctify you also. He not only offers 
to take you to heaven, but to make you fit for 
heaven ; not only to put his righteousness upon you 
and make you happy, but to put his Spirit and his 
image in you and make you holy. Often it may 
be, you have lamented the strength and virulence 
of sin that dwelleth in you ; often bemoaned the 
deep and desperate ungodliness of your nature ; 
often and earnestly endeavored to break the chains 
of sin and Satan and lead a Christian life. But 
never could you succeed. Many the device and 
expedient to which you have resorted, but in 
vain. You have found that though you washed 
you with snow water and made your hands never 
so clean, yet you would plunge into the ditch 
again, until your own clothes would abhor you. 
You have made resolution after resolution ; tried 
plan after plan ; consulted one friend and guide 
after another ; like the woman with the sore dis- 
ease, you have spent all you had on many physi- 
cians and are nothing the better, but rather grow 
worse ; and now, at last, you are ready to despair 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST, 



273 



of ever being fit to pass the pearly gates and walk 
the golden streets of the glass-like city — of ever 
being meet for the inheritance of the saints in 
light. But be of good cheer, Jesus' name \^ 
Jehovah-ropheka, the Lord that healeth thee."^ 
He is a Physician willing and able to save the sin- 
sick soul. If you are willing to be made whole, I 
have good news for you. I am come with the offer 
of a full salvation. I am charged to tell thee that 
Jesus offers to heal thy leprosy and make you white 
as snow ; to give you a new heart and to write his 
law in it, and impress his image on it ; that he 
offers to make you a new creature; to make you 
know truth in the inner part ; to make you all 
glorious within; to sanctify your whole spirit, and 
soul and body, and to present you faultless before 
the throne, with exceeding great joy, not having 
spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and 
without blame before him in love. And remember 
this offer is to all; to you, man and woman, no 
matter who or what you have been or are. To 
every soul under heaven, to every human being 
out of hell, to whom I can possibly obtain access, 
I am authorized and enjoined to make this offer of 
holiness — of perfect holiness. If you desire it and 
trust Jesus, and will give yourself to him, you shall 
be holy. 

You fear you shall never be fit for heaven ; but 
Jesus offers to make you so. He offers to make 
you a new and immaculate creature ; to make you 
a partaker of the divine nature; to make you like 

* Exodus XV. 26. 



274 



THE PARABLES 



unto himself. And if you will only take him at his 
word, he will do it. For he is faithful and true. 
His word and promise may be depended on ; for 
he is not man that he should lie. He is the God 
of truth. Heaven and earth may pass away, but 
his word shall not pass away. It shall be fulfilled 
to the uttermost jot. .None are ashamed that trust 
in him. Then let the anxious, despairing soul, 
bound with the cords of all lusts and sin, and 
taken captive by Satan at his will, come to Christ 
for sanctification. Trust him, ye servants of sin, 
and you shall soon learn the glorious liberty of the 
children of God. Trust him, and though you have 
long lain among the pots, ye shall be like the dove 
whose wings are covered with silver and its feathers 
with gold. Trust him and he will give you strength 
— he will shortly bruise Satan under your feet. 
Your soul shall tread down strength, and shall be 
lifted up in the ways of the Lord. He will teach 
your hands to war, your fingers to fight, and your 
arms to break the bows of steel in pieces. You 
shall break through troops. You shall overleap 
every wall and overpass every barrier, and go on 
from strength to strength until at last, with happy 
feet, you shall stand before the Son in Zion. But 
why do I thus deal in detail? In one word, he offers 
you everything, absolutely everything^ necessary to 
your comfort and usefulness in this life, or to pre- 
pare you for eternal glory in the life to come. He 
will give you grace and glory; no good thing will he 
withhold from them that walk uprightly. Some of 
you are ambitious of more wealth, more power, 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST. 



275 



more learning, or more reputation — and faith in 
Jesus Christ is the short, sure way of being filled 
with all the fullness of God. Receive him, trust 
him, cleave to him, follow him, and all things are 
yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the 
world, or life, or death, or things present, or things 
to come — all are yours and ye are Christ's and 
Christ is God's. Are you ignorant, and do you 
want more light? Look to Christ! He is. a Prophet 
and Teacher come from God to instruct you. He 
is a Light to lighten the Gentiles, the true Light to 
lighten every man. 

He will instruct you and teach you, and, with his 
eye set upon you, he will show you direction. Do 
you need more strength? Look unto Jesus. He 
is an Almighty God, and offers to make his strength 
perfect in your weakness. Are you in trouble and 
darkness? Are the storms beating upon you? Is 
deep calling unto deep ? Look to Jesus ! He is the 
very God of consolation, the God of peace, and he 
offers you peace, offers you joy unspeakable and 
full of glory ; a joy and peace which no man taketh 
from you. Are you poor and needy in this world's 
things? Look unto Jesus! The earth is his, and 
the fullness thereof, and so your bread shall be 
given you, and your water shall be sure. 

Oh, said I not well that Jesus offers you a/}/// sal- 
vation? embracing everything you can possibly need 
in body, soul and spirit, in time and throughout 
eternity. Receive him, trust him, and all shall be 
yours. 



276 THE PARABLES 

**The lions yoting may hungry be, 
And they may lack their food, 
But they that truly seek the Lord, 
Shall not lack any good." 

3. Once more: the gospel offers you s. free sal- 
vation. It does not make these offers on some hard, 
impracticable terms to be performed by you. It 
does not offer them to you on any condition^ hard or 
easy, whatever. It brings a full and great salvation, 
including pardoning mercy, justifying righteousness, 
and sanctifying grace, together with all the benefits, 
in time and eternity, that flow from them. I say it 
roundly and absolutely — I say it, in sight and hear- 
ing of heaven and earth — I say it with unutterable 
emotions of holy exultation — it brings all these in- 
finite blessings and lays them down at every man's 
door, aye! 2X your d^oor. Yea, clothed with a divine 
commission, I bring them and lay them down in 
your laps this very hour ! Will you have them ? I 
charge you nothing for them. God, the good and 
gracious, asks you nothing for them — absolutely, 
nothing at all ! 

Here is a full, a great, a free salvation, offered in 
God's name to every one of you this moment. Will 
you accept it? It is offered as an absolutely free 
gift. If you will take it, it is yours. If you will 
only consent to it, in your very heart of hearts, you 
are a saved sinner this very moment. Do not tell 
me, you must repent first, or reform first, or do 
something else first. This is to make God a liar. 
This is to reject the counsel of God to your own 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST, 



277 



ruin. I tell you, I am commissioned by the Lamb 
slain for you, to preach grace, free grace to all ! 

I am authorised to offer you this great salvation 
without any conditions at all. If you will accept it, 
It is yours — all yours-— forever yours. Do you say, 
You can not repent ? Repentance is one of the very 
things Christ offers to give you.** Do you say your 
faith is weak ? Jesus is the Author and Finisher of 
faith. Consent to be saved by him, and unto you 
it shall be given, on the behalf of Christ to be- 
lieve, f Do you say your heart is hard and corrupt? 
To give you a new heart and right spirit, to sanctify 
you in your whole spirit and soul and body, is the 
very thing Jesus offers to do. It is not said, ''Let 
every one that repenteth, believeth, reformeth,'' 
etc., but ''Whosoever will, let him take the water 
of life freely."]; It is not said, "Whosoever is 
moral and virtuous, and what not, may receive 
mercy," but, "Ho! everyone that thirsteth, come 
ye to the waters ; and he that hath no money ; come 
ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk 
without money and without price. "§ It is not said, 
"Whosoever has not done much to offend me and 
ruin himself shall be saved;" but, "Come unto me, 
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give 
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of 
me ; for I am meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall 
find rest unto your souls ;"|| and, " Him that cometh 
unto me, I will in no wise cast out."^ Surely, if 
you appear before the judgment seat without " the 



•*Acts V. 31. t Philippians i. 29. J Revelation xxli. 17. 
g Isaiah Iv. i. || Matthew xi. 28, 29, *\] John vi. ^7, 



278 ^^^^ PARABLES 

wedding garment," you will be *' speechless/'* 
You will have no excuse at all. A full and "great 
salvation, complete in everything, has been offered 
to you, freely offered to you, without money, with- 
out price, and without condition^ If you will have 
it, you may. Consent, oh, consent, and from this 
moment you are a saved man. God is your Father, 
Jesus is your Savior, the Holy Spirit your sancti- 
fier, your guide, your Strength and your comforter. 
All the blessings of the new and well ordered cove- 
nant are yours, and heaven is your home. Believe 
it on the sure testimony of God's v/ord. All this is 
offered to you, now, in God's name. And if you 
will but consent, it is yours. Oh, men and women, 
born and living in sin and misery, and posting on to 
death and the judgment, what ails you at God, that 
you will not believe and be saved? What diabolical 
spell of magical incantation blinds your minds and 
steels your hearts to the things which belong to 
your peace, your ineffable and everlasting peace ? 

In fine, the offer is an earnest and importunate 
one. Ministers are required to urge it upon your 
attention, with the utmost earnestness and eager* 
ness. They are to *'go out quickly and compel 
men to go in "—to compel them, not by physical 
coercion, as the papal commentators have it, but by 
moral coercion. They are to accept no excuse. 
They are to be baffled by no objection ; they are to 
be disheartened by no stupid obstinacy. They are 
to use all the arts of a compassionating love and all 
the moving motives in the world, of God. They are 

'^- Matthew xxii, 12. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST, 279 

'*to watch for souls;'' they are ''to pull them out 
of the fire," ''to be instant in season and out of sea- 
son." They are to endure hardness, to be strong 
in the grace that is in Christ Jesus ; to make full 
proof of their ministry; to take joyfully the spoiling 
of their goods, and not count their lives dear unto 
themselves, that so they may finish their course 
with joy, and be able to take God himself for their 
witness, that they are pure from the blood of all 
men. 

And God himself is earnest and urgent. He says 
so, and has shown it in the whole scheme of redemp- 
tion ; in the whole spirit and tenor of his word, and 
in the whole course of his providence. To doubt 
it, is to make God a liar, and blaspheme him in 
your hearts. 

And now why will you die? Why will ye not 
consent to be saved? Do you love sin more than 
you love God ? Are you so deeply and dreadfully 
infatuated, as to prefer the pleasures of sin for a 
season, to all the privileges, honors and joys unut- 
terable and eternal, of this great salvation. Will ye 
not be convinced and change? Will ye not repent 
and be converted? Wonder and be astonished, O 
ye heavens, at this! Why, the most brutish ox 
knoweth his owner, the most stupid ass knoweth his 
master's crib, and how is it that men, educated, 
intelligent, shrewd, far-seeing men and women, will 
neither know nor consider ? Yea, the stork in the 
heaven knoweth her appointed times; the turtle, 
the crane, the swallow and every bird of passage 
the time of their coming; but this people do not 



280 "^IIF- PARABLES 

know, and will not consider the things which con- 
cern their high and eternal well-being. Be that as 
it may, I call God for a record on my soul, this day, 
that I am pure from your blood, and that I have not 
shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of 
God. 

Yea, I call heaven and earth, God, angels and 
men, to record against you, that I have set before 
you life and death, blessing and cursing ; therefore 
choose life that thou and thy seed may live ; and if 
ye will not hear, my soul shall weep in secret places 
for your pride; for I denounce unto you that ye 
shall surely perish. But perhaps you ask me, **How 
may I be certain that if I now consent and turn to 
God, he will receive and save me?" My answer 
is, '*You have God's word for it.'* He says he 
will. He has said it over and over ! He has con- 
firmed it again and again by his great oath."* He 
has sealed it by the blood of his Son. That word 
may be trusted, for there is truth in God. It is 
impossible that he should lie. You can have no 
other assurance better than that. The concurring 
testimony of all signs and wonders, of all worlds, 
and ages, all ranks and orders, the wide universe 
over, is not equal to one word from God. I repeat, 
believe and all is yours. Consent, accept the free 
offer of a great and glorious salvation, and you shall 
instantly have it all. ** Whereby may I know this ?" 
Hardly have the words escaped your lips, until all 
the angels in heaven, and all the devils in hell, and 
all the stars of light and the sons of the morning 

"*' Ezekiel xxxiii. ii. Hebrews vi. 17. 



OF THE MARRIAGE FEAST, 28 1 

gather round and testify that it is even so. Aston- 
ished at the miracle, your doubts are all dispelled, 
your fears all dispersed, like a morning mist, and 
you yield your souls to the Savior's care, and go 
home rejoicing and saying, **We have seen and 
heard strange things to-day, whereof we are glad." 
O fools ! fools ! fools ! and slow of heart to be- 
lieve! For whether is greater the angels and devils, 
saints and stars, or the God of truth, who made them 
all? If ye would receive the testimony of creatures, 
the testimony of the Creator is greater, and why 
then should ye doubt it? If on their testimony you 
would consent, and, without doubting, yield your 
souls to Jesus and depart from this house shouting 
for the hope of the glory of God, then how much 
more should you do so, when you have the very 
word of the living God on which to trust ? O man ! 
will you make God a liar ? Was it for this you 
came here to-day? 
24 



282 THE PARABLE 



SERMON XVI. 
The Parable of the Ten Vii^ins. 

MATTHEW XXV. I-I3. 



This parable asserts the duty of Christian watch- 
fulness and of preparation for the second coming 
of Christ. In the previous part of his discourse, 
he had foretold his second coming. He did not 
specify the time of that coming, but leaving it 
unknown, and, therefore uncertain, he exhorts his 
followers to be ready. Chapter xxiv. 30-51. 

But death is a period when the Son of Man 
Cometh, as well as the end of the world; and I 
suppose the parable has reference to both these 
events, and exhorts and warns us to prepare for 
both. 

Nor is the exhortation unnecessary — not unneces- 
sary for professing Christians even — for many of 
them, growing careless and cold, will be surprised 
by the sudden advent of the last hour. The day 
and the dispensation of grace shall be suddenly 
ended to them by death, or by the end of all 
things, fill them, perhaps, with sudden alarms, 



OF THE TEN VIRGINS, 283 

and, if it finds them unprepared, overwhelm them 
with utter remorse and endless despair. 

*'The kingdom of heaven'' in this parable, as it 
generally does in the Gospels, signifies not the 
kingdom of glory, but the gospel dispensation, 
the visible, militant Church. 

'*The bridegroom" means Jesus Christ. Psalm 
xlv. Revelation xix. 7. Song of Solomon. Isaiah 
liv. 5. The bride is the ransomed Church, the 
whole company of the elect, redeemed and brought 
home to glory. 

The virgins, wise and foolish, represent the 
members of the visible Church. Not only real 
Christians, but all who profess to be such, are 
repeatedly, in Scripture, called virgins, because of 
their pure profession and (in the case of those who 
are Christians indeed) of their pureness of heart. 
On earth there is not an emblem of moral purity 
and loveliness more apt than this or one more fre- 
quently used in the Holy Scriptures. Psalm xlv. 
2 Corinthians xi. 2. Song of Solomon i. 3. Reve- 
lation xiv. 4. 

The whole parable is founded on the nuptial rites 
of the time and country where it was first spoken. 
In those rites the following things are worthy of 
notice : 

The ceremony was concluded at night. The 
bridegroom, attended by his youthful companions 
(children of the bride-chamber, Matthew ix. 15; 
friends of the bridegroom, John iii. 29. Judges xiv. 
11), goes to the house of the bride and leads her 
home, she being attended by some of her young 



284 ^'^^ PARABLE 

friends and companions from the house. (Psalm 
xlv. 14, 15.) In the meantime, others of them, the 
virgins of our parable, await the procession on the 
way, returning and falling in, enter with the bride- 
groom into the house, when the door is immediately 
closed to shut out intruders and for the convenience 
of the guests. 

The procession, taking place at night, was accom- 
panied with torch lights, or 'Mamps,'' as they are 
called in our text. Strips of flax or cotton, wrap- 
ped around a piece of iron, which was inserted in 
a wooden handle and dipped in oil and ignited, con- 
stituted the torch. The torch thus formed, and 
ignited, required to be frequently replenished with 
oil, to prevent its burning out. The oil for this 
purpose was carried in a vessel with the torch.* 

The marriage festivities, to which the virgins 
were admitted, emblemize the splendors, glories 
and joys of the heavenly state, to which believers 
are admitted after death, and especially after the 
resurrection. They are that ''far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory" pledged in the promise 
and *'kept in store" against the day of ''the mani- 
festation of the sons of God" — that glorious day 
when the heavenly bridegroom cometh. 

The lamps or torches, lit and burning, are the 
preparation which professed Christians make for the 
coming of Christ at death and at the judgment. 
All professors of religion are supposed to make 
some preparation, more or less, but while the prepa- 
ration of some is adequate, that of others is fatally 

* Jahn's Arch. 154. 



OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 285 

deceptive. '*They took no oil in their vessels with 
their lamps.'' 

With these general statements, let us now return 
upon the parable and note, seriatim^ the things 
which seem more especially to challenge our atten- 
tion. 

1 . ** Tlie7i shall the kingdom of heaven be likened 
unto ten virgins!' Those who are members of the 
visible Church, and who stand in professed connec- 
tion wath the Redeemer, will be found, in character 
and condition, as different as the ten virgins here 
spoken of. For they are not all Israel, who are 
of Israel. They are not all Christians, who name 
the name of Christ. There ever has been in the 
Church, and unto the end there will be, the tares 
growing among the wheat; the bad fish with the 
good, caught in the gospel net; those with the wed- 
ding garment, and those without it, at the gospel 
feast. There was a Cain in the family of Adam, a 
Ham in the Ark, a Korah with Moses, an Ahitho- 
phel with David, and a Judas in the family of the 
Savior. If all, who profess Christ in word, were 
Christians indeed, then the judgment would be 
revealed before its time.. But it is not so. The 
Church, like the individual believer, '*is, as it 
were, the company of two armies." Let no one 
of you, my dear hearers, flatter himself that he shall 
surely be saved, merely because he is a professor 
of religion and a member of the Christian Church. 
It is as easy, and a far more terrible thing, to per- 
ish in the Church as in the world that lieth in sin. 

2. *' The ten virgins!' The exact number ten 



286 ^^^ PARABLE 

here is of no importance, except as that it took this 
number (among the Jews) to make a company. 
(Trench, page 202.) It far more concerns us to 
observe that Christians are here, and elsewhere, 
emblemized as virgins, to denote the purity, sim- 
pUcity and sincerity of character, and the ardor of 
and uncalculating, self-sacrificing and steadfast love, 
which should characterize them. Christians, to be 
worthy of their name and calling, must be of pure 
heart, clean hands and guileless tongue. They must 
hate garments spotted by the flesh and keep them- 
selves unspotted from the world. They must yield 
themselves entirely up to God and serve him instant- 
ly, day and night, with a pure heart fervently. They 
must know truth in the inner part. They must be all- 
glorious within, and be clothed with robes of spotless 
righteousness. Their life and conversation must be 
such as become godliness. Their hearts must cleave 
in loyal, steadfast love to God, and to him only. 
They must flee fleshly lusts which war against the 
soul. They must put away filthiness and foolish 
talking and jesting. They must be meek, humble, 
merciful and pure in heart. They must be pure and 
peaceable and gentle, and easy to be entreated, full 
of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and 
without hypocrisy. Having been espoused, as 
chaste virgins unto Christ, they must be faithful 
to their espousals. They must trust and hope in 
Christ, their betrothed alone. They must be dead 
to the world and alive to Him. They must prepare 
for his coming, and continually wait for it. They 
must wash their robes and make them white in the 



OF THE 7 EN VIRGINS. 287 

blood of the Lamb. They must have their lamps 
trimmed and burning, and the **oil of heavenly 
grace'' in their vessels with their lamps. Such a 
life must they lead who would walk in white with 
Christ in heaven. 

3. But not thus did all the virgins, for ''Jive were 
foolishy or, as it might be rendered, '' improvident ^ 
These foolish virgins are professed^ but not real 
Christians. They are '*with us, but not of us." 
They are in the Church, but not of the Church. 
These foolish virgins are not the ignorant and 
beastly heathen, nor the fanatical followers of Mo- 
hammed, nor the superstitious idolaters of Rome 
worshiping saints and angels, and bread and wine. 
Nor yet are they such open and careless sinners as 
we see every day around us ; not openly godless, 
and Christless and profane. 

Nor yet are they deliberate hypocrites, putting 
on religion merely as a mask to deceive, and thus 
pave the way for deeper deeds of darkness. They 
take the lamp of a public profession, and their lamp 
is lit and burning; and just for the present, all 
seems ready. The light of their profession and 
piety shines with some brightness for a brief space. 
They attend upon the ordinances of religion. They 
frequent the solemn assemblies. They receive the 
holy sacraments. Their religious feelings are warm 
for awhile. They appear to others to be indeed 
Christians, and they esteem themselves such. 

Like *^the stony-ground" hearers, in the parable 
of the sower, the seed of truth springs up quickly 
and grows rapidly for a time. Like Herod, they 



288 . ^^^ PARABLE 

do many religious works and hear the gospel gladly. 
The flaxen flambeau burns brightly for a time, 
though not fed with oil ; and the stony-ground 
hearer for a time shines and sings, though never 
anointed with an unction from on high. If he 
speaks with the tongue of men and of angels, as he 
discourses of the wonders of redemption, he is, 
nevertheless, nothing but sounding brass and a 
tinkling cymbal. He may have made great attain- 
ments in religious knowledge, even so as to under- 
stand all mysteries and knowledge, and yet have 
nothing of that heaven-born charity which is essen- 
tial to Christian character. To his wisdom and his 
eloquence he may add many a good work ; he may 
bestow all his goods to feed the poor, and rather 
than renounce his profession may give his body to 
be burned, and yet be an unsound professor — a 
foolish virgin. Hopes of heaven and of future glory 
may beat high in his bosom, and he may look for- 
ward with most agreeable anticipations to death and 
the eternal world, and yet be deceiving himself all 
this while — yea, even continue to deceive himself 
until the very last ; for thus the foolish virgins did ; 
and then in the last hour, as he is summoned into 
the presence of the Judge, his hope may be as the 
giving up of the ghost. All this may be ; and all 
this will be, with any professor who is in the case of 
the improvident virgins. 

4, *' They that were foolish took their lamps, and 
took no oil with them : but the wise took oil in their 
vessels with their lamps'' Oil here signifies the Holy 
Spirit, shed abroad in his gracious influences upon 



OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 



289 



the soul. This is the fixed, and in the New Testa- 
ment, I beheve, the invariable significancy of the 
word, when used figuratively. (Psalm xlv. 7; 
Ixxxix. 20; xcii. 10; xxiii. 5. 2 Corinthians i. 21. 
Hebrews i. 9. i John ii. 20-27. ) 

Hence to have torches, but no oil to feed them, is 
to make a profession and to go through the outward 
forms of religion, but yet to be destitute of a truly 
renewed and gracious heart. Such a soul, much 
exercised about religion in a superficial way, has 
never been truly renewed and sanctified by the Holy 
Ghost. As the flaming torch with an oilless vessel, 
so is this busy religion with an unchanged heart — it 
lacks that which gives it power and continuance. 
The Pharisees were just such foolish virgins. For 
with all their busy (and in some cases sincere) zeal, 
he who knows the heart, '' knew that they had not 
the love of God abiding in them." Their faith was 
only a temporary faith, like Herod's, and of so many 
others in every age. 

But not so with the wise. They took oil in their 
vessels with their lamps. They started right in the 
outset. They made sure work of turning to God. 
They did not compound the matter with conscience. 
They heartily renounced the world, the flesh and the 
devil. They cordially embraced Christ as all in all. 
They received the Holy Ghost. They were born 
again and were renewed in the spirit of their minds. 
They had the lamps, and they had oil also. They 
had the form of godliness, and they had also its 
power. They professed the name of Christ ; they 
also possessed his image and his spirit — they were 

25 



2go 



THE PARABLE 



like him, in the frame and temper of his mind, both 
toward God and toward men. Did they wear a 
devotional countenance? They also had devout 
spirits. Did they profess to be pilgrims and stran- 
gers in the earth? They were so indeed. They 
steadfastly set their faces to go to the heavenly 
land. They sought a city— a city that had founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God. Did they 
stand up for God's laws and truth and contend for 
them against a scoffing and angry world ? This they 
did not in the spirit of faction or party or sect, but 
because they really loved those law^s and that truth, 
and prized them above all that earth holds most val- 
uable and dear. They could appeal to the Searcher 
of hearts and say, **Lord, thou knowest all things, 
thou knowest that I love thee.'' Jesus Christ in his 
person, offices and work was precious above all 
things to them. 

5. But let me not describe an ideal character. 
Let me not teach that they became sinlessly per- 
fect in this life — -that they were without weakness 
and stain. '' WMle the bridegroo^n tarried, they all 
slumbered and sleptr These words may be under- 
stood as giving a description either of the state of 
the Church at the end of the world or of professing 
Christians at death. 

(l.) First, they may be viewed as giving a 
description of the state of the Church at the end 
of the w^orld. ''The bridegroom tarried '' until the 
virgins, weary with waiting, nodded and slept. 
The second coming of Chist was to be deferred for 
a long period after his resurrection and ascension 



OF THE TEN VIRGINS, 29 1 

into heaven — deferred until many of the members 
of the Church weary with waiting should cease to 
watch and wait. It was to be deferred so long that 
the wicked world would scoff at the very idea, say- 
ing: ''Where is the promise of his coming, for since 
the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they 
were from the beginning of the creation."* Nor 
will this be confined to the world. It will reach the 
Church, and many nominal Christians will say in 
their hearts, '* My Lord delayeth his coming; and 
shall begin to smite their fellow-servants, and to 
eat and drink with the drunken, "f Yea, we are 
assured that even in tiie Church, and among pro* 
fessed Christians, perilous times shall come in the 
last days. ''For men shall be lovers of their own 
selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, dis- 
obedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without 
natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, in- 
continent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 
traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures 
more than lovers of God ; having a form of goldli- 
ness, but denying the power thereof. "J Yea, the 
Holy Spirit "speaketh expressly, that in the latter 
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed 
to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; speaking 
lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared 
with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and command- 
ing to abstain from meats, which God hath created 
to be received with thanksgiving of them which 
believe and know the truth. "§ Prophecy is dis- 



•••• 2 Peter iii. 3, 4. t Matthew xxiv. 48, 49. X 2 Timothy iii. 
1-5. ? I Timothy iv. 1-3. 



2g2 



THE PARABLE 



tinct and clear in pronouncing that after the glorious 
millennium of holiness and happiness, Satan must 
be loosed for a little season and go out and deceive 
the nations, and gather them together to battle 
against the Church and cause of God ; and that 
there shall be a great and lamentable falling away. 
Our text and some other passages seem distinctly 
to declare that true Christians, like Lot in Sodom, 
like Noah among the antediluvians, like Peter 
among the Judaizers of his time, will be affected 
more or less by the evil times that shall fall upon 
them. Even the wise virgins *' nodded and slept/* 
Nor is it strange that it should be so. For as long 
as human nature remains what it now is, *'evil com- 
munications must corrupt good manners." And at 
the second coming of Christ, the same thing will be 
true of even real Christians that had been always 
true before, viz: that *'when iniquity abounds, the 
love of many waxes cold.'* And so rapid and so 
general will be the spread of the evil that the Scrip- 
tures declare that the second coming of Christ will 
hardly find faith upon the earth ; and will find true 
piety depressed and discouraged, and flagrant and 
enormous infidelity, sensuality, selfishness and sin 
wide-spread and havocking the earth, and turning 
it into a terrestrial pandemonium. 

(2.) Secondly, the words ''nodding and sleep- 
ing '' may be understood as descriptive of the moral 
state of many true Christians, when their Lord 
comes for them at death. Death is to the believer 
a coming of his Lord. John xiv. 3, 18, 28. It is 
especially in this sense that Jesus, in the previous 



OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 



293 



part of the discourse (Matthew xxiv. 30-51), and in 
paralell passages, urges to watchfulness and prepara- 
tion. The apostles 'and primitive Christians were 
fully advised that the final judgment would not take 
place in that day, but was a distant event. They 
knew that many prophecies were to be fulfilled, 
many purposes to be accomplished, much time to 
transpire, many generations to live and die before 
the final consummation of all things."* Also they 
knew they must die, and often spoke of dying. To 
Peter, it had not only been revealed that he must 
die, but die the death of a martyr, f The great 
body of the Church in that early day knew they 
must die, knew they would not live until the end 
of the world, and yet in this discourse, over and 
over again, the apostles and disciples are exhorted 
to watch and be prepared for His coming. It must 
be His coming at death that is mainly intended ; and 
it is to this the words, *^ while the bridegroom .tar- 
ried, they all slumbered and slept," have a principal 
reference. 

And how often has this solemn and startling fact 
been verified ! How generally is it verified in the 
history of professors, both true and false, both wise 
and foolish! When first the sinner has been con- 
verted to God, what fervency of heart, what relig- 
ious life and zeal does he manifest! How speedily 
does he hasten to light the lamp of the Christian 
profession and go forth to await the coming glory ! 
His is the warmth and the glow and the gush of a 
first love. How often does he look with kindling 



2 Thessalonians ii. 1-12. t John xxi. 18, 19. 



2g4 "^HE PARABLE 

eye and swelling bosom into the crystal depth 
above him, and count the time and chide the tardy 
hours that delay him from his home ! He walks by 
faith. He feeds and feasts on the promises. His 
hope is anchored within the vail. His soul is on 
fire. His heart is filled with joy unspeakable and 
full of glory. If you see him, there is a glory in 
his eye and a glory on his cheek. O ! how differ- 
ently all things seem to him from what they did 
before ; old things have passed away and behold all 
things have become new. He longs for heaven. 
*^He is sick of love.'' 

But the kingdom tarries. The chariot of death 
does not bring his great and dear Redeemer down. 
Earth hath its cares. The world has its wants. Life 
has its battles and its struggles and its sorrows. 
Fortune smiles and lures. Adversity frowns. Dan- 
gers lower. The senses are ensnared by a thousand 
baits. The heart is darkened and chilled by a thou- 
sand clouds. And now what is the result? The 
believer's spirituality has been damaged. He has 
not lost his first love entirely, but it is not what it 
was. He has been too much engrossed with the 
cares and sorrows of the world. He is nodding ana 
sleeping, Alas ! alas ! How true a picture is this 
of many a real Christian. Jesus has something 
against him, for he has forgotten his first ' love. 
Alas ! that he could so far forget to look and long 
for the coming of the bridegroom — that glorious 
event for which all creation is groaning. Romans 
viii. 18-24. 

6. But while immersed and engrossed in these 



OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 



29S 



worldly cares, the soul is harassed with temptations 
and the heart with carnal passions, the chariot of 
death comes. Jesus unexpectedly comes ; comes 
at such a time as men think not; comes at mid- 
night ; comes when the soul, filled with the cares 
of this life, is in a spiritual slumber, in a deep 
sleep. 

At midnight the great cry is made, " T/ie bride- 
groom comethy While professors are busy with the 
world, while they are full of schemes and plans and 
hopes for the future, and are but coldly thinking of 
eternity and of heaven, they receive the distinct 
monitions of death. Fever, with its tongue of fire, 
cries out, ** Prepare to meet thy God." Famine and 
pestilence and earthquakes proclaim, *^ Prepare to 
meet thy God." Sickness of whatever kind, disas- 
ters with a thousand tongues, call aloud, ^* Prepare 
to meet thy God." And prepare these professors 
must. Death has come. Christ has come. And 
now they must be ready for heaven, or lose it for- 
ever. Oh, what a solemn summons to the sleeping 
virgins ! 

7. '' Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their 
lampsr The dying professor hastens to trim his 
lamp — is diligent to set his soul in order. He de- 
sires to be sure of the blessed joys of an eternal 
heaven now. He stirs up his soul. He redoubles 
religious diligence. He examines his soul. He 
scrutinizes his graces and his religious experience. 
He at once shakes off his slumber, lets go the world, 
and with the solemnity which befits the awful hour 
and the awful act, prepares to launch forth and 



296 THE PARABLE 

shoot the gulf to the eternal world. He redoubles 
prayer. He concentrates his last remaining powers 
upon eternal things. 

But how different now the fate of the wise and the 
foolish virgins, of the true and the false professor, 
of him who has the true and the exhaustless grace 
in the soul and the formal religionist ! The former, 
though taken by surprise and though startled for a 
brief hour by the high and resistless summons, 
speedily recovers from his slumber, awakes to right- 
eousness, renews his strength, and — is ready to go. 
Cheerfully he bids adieu to earth, for he is going to 
heaven; cheerfully leaves his possessions, honors 
and pleasures, for these never were his hope or his 
idol; his hopes, treasures and joys being all laid 
up in heaven ; cheerfully lays his body down and 
breathes his spirit forth, for he knows that if his 
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, he 
has a house not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens; cheerfully leaves the loved and sacred 
circles of friends and of home, for he goes to God 
his Father, Christ his Savior, an innumerable com- 
pany of angels and to the general assembly and 
Church of the first-born which are written in heaven. 
He knows whom he has believed. Death has been 
unstinged, the grave has been conquered. Doubts 
and fears vanish. Assurance fills the heart. Trans- 
port snatches the spirit away. On the edge of glory 
and fluttering to be gone, he thus communes: 

Vital spark of heavenly flame. 
Quit, O quit this mortal frame, 
Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying; 
Oh ! the pain, the bliss of dying. 



OF THE TEN VIRGINS, 29/ 

Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife, 
And let me languish into life. 
Hark ! they whisper, angels say, 
Sister spirit, come away. 
What is this absorbs me quite, 
Steals my senses, shuts my sight. 
Drowns my spirit, draws my breath ? 
Tell me, my soul, can this be death ? 
The world recedes, it disappears, 
Heaven opens on my eyes, my ears 
With sounds seraphic ring. 
Lend, lend your wings, I mount, I fly ! 
Oh grave, where is thy victory ? 
Oh death, where is thy sting?"* 

Thus dies the former; but not so the latter, not 
so the fooHsh virgins. Dies the merely nominal 
professor, as the fool dieth, and his hope perishes 
as the spider's web. Ah ! outward profession and 
formal duties avail not now. '' His lamp is going 
out.'' His empty forms of legal and self-righteous 
worship are about to perish forever. Oh, what a 
preacher art thou, O death ! The man who could 
never be brought truly to see and to feel his guilty, 
lost and miserable estate, and his infinite need of 
the justifying righteousness and the sanctifying 
grace of God, sees and feels it now. The man who 
could never be persuaded of his need of an inward 
renovation and of an all-pervading life of God in his 
soul, is persuaded now. He becomes anxious and 
alarmed. He looks around him and bestirs himself 
in good earnest now to do the work he should have 
done before. Now is the time for dying, not repent- 
ing. It is the time for going forth with a bound, a 

*" Pope. 



298 THE PARABLE 

song and a shout to meet the bridegroom; not a 
time to prepare for his coming. It is the time now 
to use the oil, not to get it! 

And yet, alas! how many put off this great and 
necessary work of preparing — seriously and thor- 
oughly preparing, until the dying hour ! How qften 
are the bodily pains of the dying bed surpassed by 
soul darkness and agonies ! How many are there, 
even among professors, who can not be stirred up 
to a serious and thorough performance of this work 
until death turns preacher and thunders in their 
ears! And then what amazement, what inward 
trembling, what soul anxiety and anguish ! What 
eager diligence and care ! 

''And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your 
oil, for our lajnps are gone out!' How often is this 
realized in every-day life. How often does the 
mere moralist or formalist, when at death's door 
he comes to see himself as he is, send for the min- 
ister and for Christians, and seek their counsel and 
their prayers, who never did so before; and how 
ofen is it all in vain ? How often does all hope 
perish before the bodies die? How often is the 
wretched ghost borne from its' gasping body in the 
winding-sheet of blank despair? The Lord of that 
servant has come at a time when he looked not for 
him, and at an hour of which he was not aware, and 
appoints him his portion with hypocrites and unbe- 
lievers. In vain do pastors and Christian friends 
watch and pray around him. For although the 
effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avail- 
eth much, yet it can not avail to effect an impossi- 



OF THE TEN VIRGINS. 



299 



billty, and it is impossible to recall the day of grace 
when that day is past and gone forever. It is vain 
to point to Jesus, in vain to seek mercy. It is too 
late. The Bridegroom has come and the door is 
shut. Not that there are no death-bed conversions. 
They are, however, very few — few among any class 
and fewest of all among hypocritical professors of 
religion, who have deceitfully trifled all their lives 
with God, with the Church, and with themselves, 
and whose condition and final destiny seemed to be 
declared in Matthew xxiv. 48-51 and Proverbs i. 
24-31. 

CONCLUSION. 

Let us then be ready; let us have our loins girt 
and our lamps burning ; let us every day live as if 
it were our last day ; let us spend every hour and 
moment as if we had not another to spend; let us 
not allow death to surprise us slumbering and sleep- 
ing. Oh! how dreadful the condition when that 
stern messenger coming finds us immersed in earthly 
pursuits and cares — unready and unwilling to go. 
What would the drunkard and the harlot and the 
Sabbath-breaker and the covetous person and the 
proud and the envious and the whisperer and 
the backbiter give then, to recall their wasted 
time and their slighted privileges. Oh, how little 
will time and all its concernments look, when, 
standing upon its confines and looking out upon the 
shoreless future, we compare them with the grand, 
awful, boundless prospects of that eternity, which 
then shall spread itself out in overwhelming magni- 
tude before us. O careless hearer and careless pro- 



300 "^HE PARABLE^ 

fessor, awake from this sleep of death — burst away 
from this deep, this damning infatuation which 
benumbs and stupefies you. Let your loins be girt 
and your lamps be burning. Let your vessels 
be replenished with oil. What meanest thou, O 
sleeper? My friends in addressing you I am over- 
whelmed with the magnitude of the interests at 
stake. I am overpowered and borne down with a 
sense of the issues of this day's work. Is it not so 
(God grant I may be mistaken), but is it not even so 
that in addressing myself to this great congregation 
of virgins — of professors of religion, that I am ad- 
dressing a congregation, every individual of which is 
slumbering and sleeping, and many of them also 
without oil in their vessels? Let us test the matter. 
Let us try whether this is the alarming condition 
of many of those — of all of those who are now 
before me. Are not you, O man, are not you, O 
woman, slumbering and sleeping? Are you in that 
frame of mind in which you would be were you 
certain that so soon as you leave the throne of 
grace, around which you are now assembled in 
quiet and solemn posture, you would be summoned 
by the cry, *' Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go 
ye forth to meet him?'' Is it indeed so that ever 
since the last Sabbath day you have so lived 
through all the week as you would have lived had 
an angel assured you that to-night you must die? 
Nay, my brethren, had one of those good and 
happy spirits, who minister to the heirs of salva- 
tion, assured you on this day week by-gone, that 
on this night the midnight cry of our text should 



or THE TEN VIRGINS. 



301 



ring its alluring or its alarming accents upon your 
ears, would not your deportment during the inter- 
vening period have been very different from what 
it really has been? Would the grave and great 
thoughts of life, death, judgment, eternity, heaven 
and hell been as seldom in your hearts? Would 
the work of self-examination have been so super- 
ficial, or the voice of prayer so dull ? Would the 
things of earth have engaged so much of your 
time or your affections, of your anxieties, your 
hopes or your fears? Nay, my flock, you are living 
in the continual neglect of duty. You are con- 
tinually hazarding your precious souls. You are 
sleeping upon the brink of the yawning precipice. 
You have not your loins girt and your lamps burn- 
ing and all things ready for starting at a moment's 
warning across that dark, deep gulf of difficult and 
dangerous passage, which you must perhaps try to- 
night. 

Oh ! how many among you will in all probability 
shortly raise the sad cry that the lamp of your 
religion is ** going out," and that you are about to 
be left in total and in endless darkness. Oh ! how 
sad when in the moment of death — that time of 
need — when all other things having been taken 
from you, joy and hope and high expectancy are 
taken too. How dreary that soul who has been 
roused by the midnight cry from its midnight slum- 
ber, only to awake amidst flame and midnight dark- 
ness. How great the blasting of all your hopes, 
when the skinny hand of death pushes you away 
from your prayers and your property, your petitions 



302 THE PARABLE 

and your pursuits, your sermons and your sordid- 
ness, your sacraments and your indulged passions. 
How sore the surprise when you find that suddenly 
you have lost the one and that the other avails you 
not, because that you have never had the love of 
God or godliness, of Christ or Christianity, abiding 
in you. Poor, self-deluded mortal, does not your 
conscience reveal to you ere this the treachery of 
that, above all things, deceitful and desperately 
wicked "heart of yours? Do you not plainly see 
that if you had the oil of regenerating and sanctify- 
ing grace to feed the lamp of your religious profes- 
sion, that it would be otherwise— that instead of that 
odd and infernal medley of the things of God and 
of the things of mammon, of which we have just 
spoken, we would have found you In a different 
posture — old things passed away and all things 
new? Be admonished then by the solemnly instruc- 
tive fate of the virgins. Awaken out of sleep and 
put on the armor of the light and of the day. Take 
the whole armor of God that ye may stand against 
the evil day and having done all, to stand. For we 
war not a trifling warfare, but we fight with princi- 
palities and against power, against the rulers of the 
darkness of this world, and against spiritual wicked- 
ness in high places — and we fight for heaven. Be 
up then in a moment and be ever on the alert, 
because your adversary, as a roaring lion, goeth 
about seeking whom he may devour, and because 
the Son of man Cometh at an hour when ye think 
not. 



OF THE THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 



303 



SERMON XVII. 
The Parable of the Good Samaf\- 

ITAN. 

LUKE X. 30-37. 



This parable was designed to teach us kindness 
or benevolence toward our neighbor. The circum* 
stances connected with its deliverance are stated in 
the context. Verses 25-29. It had already been 
admitted that we are required to love our neighbor 
as ourselves. And the parable is designed to ex- 
plain and enforce this idea. This is all. To explain 
(as some have done) this parable to mean the fall 
of men in Adam and their recovery through Christ 
is utterly without foundation. 

Attention to historical circumstances will cast 
much light upon the meaning and beauty of this 
parable. 

I. It would seem from the parable that the road 
from Jerusalem to Jericho was one much frequented. 
This we know to be a fact. It was the road which 
led to Per^a as w^ell as to Jericho, and lience its 



304 



THE PARABLE 



publicity. But at Jericho there were stations or 
classes of priests and Levites, and these would be 
of course frequently going up to Jerusalem, to en- 
gage in religious services, after the performance of 
which they would return to their homes. Hence 
the propriety of the mention of both a priest and a 
Levite in the parable. 

2. Another historical circumstance to be noted is 
the dangerousness of that road. It lay through a 
desert country and in the vicinity of mountains 
inhabited only by banditti, who attacked passing 
travelers. The propriety of the imagery of the 
parable is very manifest. 

3. It remains to mention a third circumstance in 
the history of the times in order to illustrate com- 
pletely the propriety, force and beauty of the whole 
imagery. I allude to the alienation and enmity 
which existed between the Jews and the Samaritans. 
John iv. 9. 

The sum of the matter is this: the road from Jeru- 
salem to Jericho was a very public one — one along 
which priests and Levites were very frequently pass- 
ing — withal it was a very d.angerous road — and the 
Jews and Samaritans were violent and hereditary 
enemies. Now the Savior makes use of these cir- 
cumstances to illustrate and enforce the lesson of 
universal and active benevolence. The Samaritan, a 
hereditary enemy of the Jewish race, is represented 
as laying aside the remembrance of this national 
antipathy, and notwithstanding the fact that it was 
a Jew who lay wounded and half-dead before him — • 
notwithstanding that he was on a journey in which 



OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 305 

it was annoying to be delayed — notwithstanding he 
was in great jeopardy himself by delaying along 
that dangerous way — yet the calls of humanity, of 
universal philanthropy, were louder and more force- 
ful than all these pleadings of selfishness, and *'he 
had compassion on him and went to him, and bound 
up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him 
on his own beast and brought him to an inn and 
took care of him " (through the night), *'and on the 
morrow, when he departed, he took out two pence *' 
(all the money he could spare from his own present 
necessities), '' and gave them to the host, and said 
unto him. Take care of him, and whatsoever thou 
spendest more, when I come again, I will repay 
thee/' Upon this conduct we have the following 
dialogue: *' Which now of these three, thinkest 
thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among the 
thieves? And he said" (the lawyer, previously 
mentioned), '' He that shewed mercy on him. Then 
said Jesus unto him. Go, and do thou likewise/' 
Go, and as opportunity offers, and especially as need 
requires, perform these labors of love, not merely 
to your family and your friends and your acquaint- 
ances and your countrymen, but even to strangers 
who are far away, and to enemies ; and do this even 
at the sacrifice of your own possessions, and if need 
requires it, even although you should thereby much 
interrupt your own plans and greatly endanger your 
own life. 

Upon this parable I found the following remarks : 
I. We are to reckon all men, even our enemies, 
as our brothers and to love them as such. No mat- 
26 



306 THE PARABLE 

ter how remote their place, or how obscure their 
situation, or how rude and barbarous their character. 
No matter for country, or cHmate or color. No 
matter whether they are kind or unkind, peaceful or 
warlike, we are to love all ; and to love them as our- 
selves. Matthew v. 43-47. Luke vi. 32-36. Nor 
do the Scriptures enjoin a morality so high as to be 
unattainable. Romans xii. 14-21.^ 

In this does the morality of our holy religion 
differ from that of every other upon the face of the 
earth. Other religions will teach their devotees to 
love those who are brother devotees, while they 
too often, like those of Mecca and of Rome, put 
the sword into the hands of men against all those of 
a different creed. Always do they teach the duty 
of looking upon all others with an eye of alienation 
and dislike. This is one of the particulars in which 
the Bible morality manifests itself to be of God. 
All men are to be loved and cherished. All men 
are brothers. God hath made of one blood all 
nations for to dwell on all the face of the earth, f 

2. This love to strangers and enemies, to all men 
existing upon the earth, is not an affection which 
may be locked up in our bosoms and kept down in 
the torpor of dormant inactivity, but it is one which 
is to be called into vigorous and constant exercise. 
It should give shape and object and character to all 
our plans and pursuits. We must not only love all 
men in our hearts and with all our hearts, but we 
must manifest that love in our whole lives and by 
the constant tenor of our every-day actions. Indeed 

* See Chalmers in loco, t Acts xvii. 26. 



OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN, 307 

the benevolence of performance must and will be 
found to correspond with the benevolence of feeling. 
Just in proportion as the heaven-infused principles 
of philanthropy find place in the soul, just in that 
proportion will acts of beneficence thicken and 
brighten along our pathway. Out of the abundance 
of the heart the mouth speaketh and the hand 
worketh. It will be among the necessary and un- 
avoidable sequences of things, that as when the tree 
is good, the fruit will be good ; so when the heart is 
kind, the eye will be kind ; and, when the feelings 
are loving, the actions will be loving. The physical 
necessity is not greater that the stream should be as 
the fountain, than is the moral necessity that the life 
should be as the heart. These are truths which 
commend themselves to every man's conscience. 
When we see a man always quarreling and fighting, 
the conclusion invariably is that he has a selfish and 
quarrelsome disposition. If we see a man always 
engaged in philosophy, poetry, music, or painting, 
we say that he has a taste and love for that branch 
of science or art which he thus pursues. Not only 
ought we to see that our beneficence follows our 
benevolence, and that kind and good actions follow 
kind and good feelings,, but also that in the nature 
of things this must be so — that it can not be other- 
wise. These teachings of enlightened reason cor- 
respond to the infallible word and law of God. 
When we turn to them we find them inculcating 
with the greatest possible earnestness and authority 
the sam^ salutary lesson. We hear them declaring 
that the love of the he^rt is tQ be manifested in the 



3o8 ^^^^ PARABLE 

charities of the hfe; and that he in whom these 
things are not found is not and can not be a Chris- 
tian. I John iii. 17, 18. Romans xii. 9-20. James 
ii. 15, 16. I Peter i. 22. 

It is not merely in obedience to the authority of 
God that we urge the duty inculcated in our parable. 
Our duty to man — morality as well as piety — urges 
that we '/do to others as we would have others do 
unto us/' And it is both upon the one and the other 
of these grounds that we urge upon the Church the 
duty of engaging in works of beneficent charity. 
It is on both these principles that we urge the duty 
of sustaining the benevolent and evangelical institu- 
tions now in operation. We must act the part of 
the good Samaritan on an extensive theater. We 
must do to all men as we would that they should in 
like circumstances do unto us. Not to do so is a 
breach both of piety and morality — a violation of 
both the first and second tables of the law — an in- 
fraction of our obligations both to God and man. 
Now, I put it to you, whether it is consistent with 
loving our neighbor as ourselves to withhold from 
them the means either of present or of future good, 
when we have them at our disposal ? What would 
you wish to be done to you were you destitute of the 
gospel and of the means of grace ? Were the Chinese 
or the Hindus, or any portion of the Mohammedan 
or Pagan world to exchange places with you ; had 
they your light and privileges, your everlasting con- 
solation and good hopes through grace ; and had 
you their darkness and ignorance ; were you fanatical 
devotees like them, and were you subject to their 



OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 



309 



miserable life and their terrible death — what would 
you wish them to do ? Would you be willing that 
they should be as tardy in reaching out the helping 
hand toward you as you are now in reaching out 
the helping hand toward them ? Can you — you 
who believe the Bible and the gospel — who are 
assured that there is a heaven and a hell — who know 
that where no vision is the people perish — can you 
say that you are willing, mutatis, mutandis,'^ that 
they should spend ten, twenty, forty, one hundred, 
one thousand, ten thousand dollars, as Christians 
are now doing, on gauze and lace and head-dresses 
and gold rings and goodly apparel — on pomp and 
equipage and feast and show, while you were, under 
their very eyes and in their hearing, going down 
with groans to the gloomy prison-house of everlast- 
ing despair? What must be the opinion of the 
twenty thousand heathen who have died to-day, 
and who are now doomed to be miserable and 
everlasting outcasts? If it is given to them to see 
and know the affairs of this upper world, and could 
their cindered eye-balls contemplate the conduct 
of the professors of this age — what must they 
think, what can they say? Lay your ear close to 
hell-gate, and you will hear, mid mingled wails and 
curses, from twenty thousand thousand of human 
beings, such words as these: **They knew that this 
year we must die. They knew that this year we 
must go to* make our bed in the everlasting burn- 
ings. They knew that the Messiah had enjoined 
them to preach the gospel to every creature. But 



■ The necessary changes being made. — Ed. 



310 THE PARABLE 

to them it mattered not; their abominable lusts 
must be satisfied. They knew that in one year 
twenty thousand thousand of Pagans must be lost — 
must begin to burn and to burn forever. But to 
them it mattered not. Their persons must be finely 
clad, their morbid appetites pampered, their estates 
enlarged and ornamented. And yet they are Chris- 
tians, at least on Sunday!" Again, I ask, are we 
doing to them as we would wish them under similar 
circumstances to do to us? Are we loving our 
neighbor as ourselves, while we act in this way? 

Nay, my brothers, nay, let us rather remember " 
the example of Christ, who for our sakes became 
poor^ Like him, let us divest ourselves of selfish 
and sensual aims and efforts, and devote ourselves 
entirely to the cause of God. Christ hath left us in 
these things an example that we should follow in 
his steps. Let us contemplate that example long 
and well ; even until we are changed into the same 
image of benevolence and beneficience by which his 
career of humiliation was characterized. Let us go 
about doing good. With a heart overflowing with 
kindness for all men, and in obedience to the spon- 
taneous promptings of inward affection, let us en- 
deavor to dispel the ignorance, and chase away the 
fears, and soothe the sorrows, and dry up the tears 
of the sin-stricken world in which we live. Let no 
country, however remote, be outside of the range of 
our kind affections— let no clime, however distant, 
be beyond the reach of our charitable activities. Let 
us not think it hard, when, in addition to the evan- 
gelical institutions of our age, we are called upon to 



OF THE THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 311 

support asylums, hospitals, schools, and other insti- 
tutions, which, though charitable, are merely secu- 
lar in their character. 

3. I think the spirit of our parable looks with an 
eye of the severest reprehension upon all the iniqui- 
tous and oppressive and cruel institutions and prac- 
tices with which our wicked world so unhappily 
abounds. ''Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself ^ 
Is this a sound and a scriptural sentiment? Is it 
the moral of our text — the truth illustrated by our 
parable ? Does it inculcate a duty binding upon all 
men? Upon every station and rank in life? Does 
it even reach to our treatment of enemies? Then 
methinks that most of those wars, which now create 
so much eclat and fill the world with carnage and 
blood, are condemned by the conduct of the good 
Samaritan. Most of them, when weighed in the 
even-poised balances of the sanctuary, will be found 
wanting. Strip war of its gaudy pomp and parade, 
and naught remains but toil, and suffering, and 
slaughter, and blood. ''Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself y Is this the sentence of Him who spake 
as never man spake — of Him who is King of kings 
and Lord of lords — of Him to whom we must all 
give an account at last of all the deeds done in the 
body. Then methinks that slavery,* without fault 
on the part of its victims, is as wide from the Scrip- 
ture morality as the zenith from the nadir. Hear, 
ye who use your neighbor's service without wages, 
and give him not for his work — ye, against whom the 
cry of the laborers who have reaped down your 

■'=■ This sermon was prepared in 1847. —Ed. 



312 



THE PARABLE 



fields, and whose wages are kept back by you by 
force and fi*aud, ascendeth to heaven — ye, who build 
your houses by oppression and your chambers by 
wrong, if there be any faint embers yet alive to 
moral right in the whole region of your sophisticated 
conscience — hear the Master's sentence: ''Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and *'Cast away 
the iron rod and the hand-cuff; break every yoke 
and let the oppressed go free." Hear this heaven- 
inspired injunction, '^TJioic shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself^' and be ashamed of false, forged Bible pleas 
for robbery and wrong. Does that man love his 
neighbor as himself who binds and chains him ; who 
rends asunder the wife and her husband, the child 
and its parent, the sister from her brother; who lays 
his unhallowed hand not only upon his liberty, and 
his hard-earned wages, and upon every endearing 
and holy tie of earthly relationship, but who, with 
an effrontery that hell should be ashamed of, lays his 
hand upon the soul also and binds it down in igno- 
rance and crime, to end in everlasting death? Does 
this man of most enormous outrage love his neigh- 
bor as himself? Does he do all this from pure be- 
nevolence ? Does pure love to his neighbor prompt 
him to lay his hand upon this man's person and pos- 
sessions, and take them all away? Is it the ever- 
active spirit of Christian charity that impels him to 
force his helpless, writhing victims to labor from 
dawn till dark, from youth till death, at the end of 
the lash, for a pitiful pittance of clothing and food, 
whilst the very amiable and disinterested master riots 
and revels on the handsome proceeds of this Bible 



OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 313 

benevolence? Does he deprive him of moral and 
intellectual elevation and enjoyment — does he keep 
Bibles and books from him by legislative enactment, 
and train him for crime and condemnation — and all 
this just because he loves his neighbor as himself? 
It is one among the strangest and most incompre- 
hensible of things, that it should have ever entered 
the mind of any human being, much more of per- 
sons professing godliness, that the slavery of unof- 
fending persons, even in its mildest form, is consis- 
tent with that love which ought to have place in the 
bosoms of all God's intelligent creatures. It is not 
loving our neighbor as ourselves; it is not laying 
down our lives for the brethren ; it is not doing 
God's will on earth as it is done in heaven — for in 
heaven there is no slavery of unoffending beings, no 
lash, no hand-cuffs, no tears, no groans, and no 
blood. The holding of our unoffending fellow-men 
is not doing to others as we would desire them to 
do unto us."^ 

I think also that the spirit of the parable has been 
entirely lost sight of by those who persecute others 
for conscience sake. This is not to love our neigh- 
bor as ourselves. While we wish to be allowed the 
peaceable possession of our own views, we ought 
not to inflict pains and penalties upon others for 
theirs. And besides, racks, and prisons, and gib- 
bets, and fires, and fines, and banishments, are not 
the arguments best calculated to explain and confirm 

* If any w^outhern reader feels aggrieved by this condemnation 
of slavery and sla\e-hoiding, it may be well for him to re-ad what 
is said in the second sermon on the parable of T/w Po?mds, in -re- 
gard to oppression, and injustice in the North. (P, 518). — Ed. 

27 



3H 



THE PARABLE 



the teachings of truth, and to recommend them to 
the understandings and affections of men. Pain and 
privation may address themselves to our fears, but 
they can not give hght to the understanding. They 
can not convince it of the truth or value of a single 
proposition. To uphold and to propagate our holy 
religion, something very different from these is re- 
quired, and something very different from them has 
been furnished by the great Captain of our salvation. 
The Christian's armor, both of defense and. offense, 
is a spiritual one. His feet are shod with the prep- 
aration of the gospel of peace; his loins are girt 
with the girdle of truth ; righteousness is his breast- 
plate; faith his shield; salvation his helmet; and his 
sword is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word 
of God. True is the declaration that the weapons 
of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through 
God to the. pulling down of strong-holds. ^ 

4. We have in this parable part of the argument 
by which we vindicate the divine morality of the 
Bible. This viewed merely as a code of morals is 
manifestly of divine origin. There is such super- 
human purity and perfection, such clearness and 
comprehensiveness in its principles, as to convince 
every unprejudiced examiner that man did not and 
could not devise it. Universal benevolence and 
beneficence are things so lovely as to engage the 
admiration and affections of the whole human fam- 
ily. But where will you find these duties inculcated 
beyond the range of revelation ? Nowhere. It has, 
indeed, been considered a defect in the Biblical sys- 

'" Ephesians vi. 14-17. 2 Corinthians x. 4. 



OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN, 3 1 5 

tern of ethics that patriotism is nowhere mentioned 
in it as a virtue. But truth refutes the idea that 
patriotism, as distinguished from cosmopohtanism, is 
a virtue. So to love our country a^ that we will 
seek its aggrandizement at the expense of right, of 
justice, of kindness to others, is not a sound moral- 
ity. The Bible enjoins the only virtuous patriotism. 
It requires us to love the entire world and seek its 
good with all earnestness and pains-taking, and to 
love the place where we were born or where we live, 
and to seek its good as forming a part of that world. 
But to seek its happiness at the expense of other 
places is a thing which the Bible neither requires 
nor tolerates, and in this, as in other particulars in 
which its morality differs from the variant systems 
of uninspired ethics, its injfinite superiority exhibits 
unmistakable traces of its divine origin. It is the 
glory of the Bible that it breaks down the barriers 
which would hmit our affections and our well-doing 
to self or to party, and teaches us that all the fami- 
lies of m_ankind, as being of one blood and brother- 
hood, should have our sympathies and services. 
And when men shall have become able to appre- 
ciate the moral sublimity of these teachings, then 
shall selfishness and party spirit and contention and 
war become things of the past. When every man 
shall say and feel, ''I am a citizen of the world, a 
brother of the race,'' then shall war and wrong and 
robbery cease, and peace and righteousness shall 
universally prevail. ''Thou, glorious era, come." 



3i6 



THE PARABLE 



SERMON XVIIL 
The Parable of the Rich Fool. 



LUKE Xn. I3«21. 



1. We learn from the conte:?ct that the Savior was 
interrupted in the midst of a discourse, the aim of 
which was to persuade his hearers to trust in the 
wisdom, power and goodness of God. He was teach- 
ing them that their Father in heaven is God over all; 
that he makes all things work for good to them that 
love him, and that all his children may, in calm con- 
fidence, give themselves up to the discharge of present 
duty without anxious thoughts about the future. 

In the midst of these consolatory assurances he was 
interrupted. One of the company had so little inter- 
est in these things, cared so little about the great sal- 
vation and the great God of salvation, and had his 
heart and soul so filled with the ephemeral interests 
of earth, as to interrupt the Savior's precious discourse 
with the unreasonable request, ** Master, speak to my 
brother that he divide the inheritance with me.'' 

2. It was not wrong indeed for him to claim his 
own just and legal share of the paternal estate, for 
it is probable that his claim was a just one, since he 



OF THE RICH FOOL. 



3^7 



appealed publicly to the great Master. Nor was it 
wrong in a disputed case to seek a settlement by ar- 
bitration, for this mode of terminating such diffi- 
culties is better than litigation, and is recommended 
in the New Testament* Nor yet was it wrong to 
refer the case to the wisest and best of men for ad- 
judication. But the wrong consisted in this: that in 
the hearing of a discourse about the greatest and 
grandest of things, the complainant was concerned 
only about earthly things, and was willing to mar all, 
if he could but secure the comparatively contemptible 
trifles on which his heart was set. It was as much 
as to say, " I have no time to care about my soul ; 
I care nothing about the great God and the proffers 
you are making in his name; I want none of his care 
or favor or friendship or saving power; I care nothing 
about the treasure eternal in the heavens. Away 
with it all, until some convenient opportunity. For 
the present, I want only the portion of goods that 
falleth to me. Nor yet do I care for the harm I may 
do to others by the interruption of this heavenly dis- 
course. These wandering souls whom you are trying 
to lead back to God may wander on forever. This 
world, that you are trying to enlighten, may wander 
on in eternal darkness for aught that I care. But I have 
one great weight pressing on my heart ; there is one 
great concern — at least great to me — one that cor- 
rodes my thoughts and cankers my hours. It is my 
inheritance." 

Do you not see that the man's heart had wholly 
turned away from God and heaven? that this little 

*1 Cor. vi. 1-6. 



3l8 THE PARABLE 

earth and this fleeting life had engrossed and swal- 
lowed him up? Is it not evident that he worshiped 
and served the creature more than the Creator, and 
that he was looking to the world as the chief good 
and portion of his soul? This was the rock upon 
which he was running his soul to dash it into irre- 
mediable ruin. He had made gold his confidence. 
He was seeking nothing else, hoping for nothing 
else, desiring nothing else. 

3. The blessed Savior, as he always did, refused 
to be an arbiter in such a case. He came not into 
the world to reform society, but to regenerate it; 
not to remodel human institutions, but to remodel 
human souls ; not to regulate the course of civil 
events, but to regulate the course and current of 
human thoughts and affections. Accordingly he 
replied, *^Man, who made me a judge or a divider 
over you?" (Verse 14.) As in this, so did the 
Savior in all other instances. Often did the Jews, 
as in the case of the woman taken in adultery and 
in that of paying taxes to Caesar, try to insnare the 
Savior into an interference with civil affairs, but 
always without success. Had the Christian pastors 
followed his example— an example from which they 
began to depart so early as the second century — it 
had been well for the world. For whatever advan- 
tages of a temporary kind may have resulted to men 
by that interference in purely civil affairs so exten- 
sively practiced by the bishops, at and after the fall 
of the Roman empire, even down to our own times, 
still the disadvantages have been many and ruinous. 
It has, in my judgment, done more to corrupt the 



OF THE RICH FOOL. 3 ip 

Church, more to waste and weaken the power of 
religion, more to block the wheels of the bright 
chariot of the gospel, more to delay the rising dawn 
of the world's redemption, than any other one influ- 
ence whatever. The Savior's consistent and persistent 
example of refusing to intermeddle with the frame- 
work of civil society and the forms and facts of civil 
administration is entirely unique, and is at vari- 
ance with the course of all self-sent reformers that 
have figured their little day in the history of the 
world. Every one of them has sought to reform 
the world by commencing without the man, instead 
of within, and by endeavoring to reform his outward 
circumstances, instead of enlightening and directing 
his conscience. And miserable reformers were they 
all. As well might they purify the stream without 
first purifying the fountain, or endeavor to make the 
fruit good without making the tree good. For what 
is human history, human institutions and human 
laws, but the acts and out-goings of human nature? 
Then make human nature good and history will be 
good. Sanctify human souls and human society, 
human laws and human institutions will be sancti- 
fied. 

4. But to return whence we have wandered. Al- 
though our Savior w^ould not act as a civil arbiter, 
he stops to give the young man a solemn and awful 
warning against the besetting sin of worldliness and 
covetousness, which had blinded the eyes of his soul 
and were leading him away from God. 

''Take heed and beware of covetousness.'' (Verse 
15.) Notice: it is covetousneiBs {Gr. pleon£xia), not 



320 THE PARABLE 

unrighteousness {Gr. adikia), against which the 
warning is given. For the young man had not been 
guilty of any unrighteousness or injustice in merely 
desiring an equitable division of the estate. But he 
was guilty of setting his mind and heart upon it in 
such a way as showed that the world was his god. 
Like the prodigal, he had turned away from the 
great God of light and life and joy — from the great, 
infinite, uncreated, ineffable good of the human soul, 
and was now feeding on husks. 

But what is covetousness? The word literally 
means '^the desire of having more,'' and the force 
of the passage is to enjoin us ** exceedingly to be- 
ware of the desire of having more." Not that the 
desire for money or property is wTong in itself. If 
we desire to have them as the means of doing good, 
the desire may be innocent and laudable. The 
desire to have wealth wherewith to feed the hungry, 
clothe the naked, relieve the sick, supply widows and 
orphans, to erect hospitals and asylums and schools 
and colleges and churches, to sustain the gospel and 
disseminate the Christian religion — to desire money, 
learning, eloquence or power for these and similar 
uses, I can not think to be sinful. It is but doing 
as Paul enjoins — *' coveting earnestly the best gifts.'' 
No; such desires are not sinful. They are not '^ cov- 
etousness." Covetousness is the desire of money 
for the sake of owning it, for the importance it 
gives, or the power it confers, or the pleasure or 
splendor it procures. The desire of wealth for these 
uses is simple, because then you are looking to it 
instead of unto God for your security and your hap- 



OF THE RICH FOOL. 321 

piness. You trust in the gift instead of the Giver, 
and worship the creature instead of the Creator. 

5. But to the warning- against covetousness the 
Savior annexes this weighty reason : '*Fora man's 
Hfe consisteth not in the abundance of the things 
which he possesseth." The word here translated 
Hfe refers to that spiritual, immortal principle within 
us, which we usually call the soul or spirit. It is 
used about one hundred and thirty-two times in the 
New "^^estament, and almost invariably has such a 
meaning. And the thing affirmed is that the chief 
good of a man does not consist in worldly things. 
The man was reminded that he had a soul ; that he 
was God-like in his nature; that earthly things, 
honors, possessions and enjoyments are for our 
earthly and perishable part ; but, that the soul — the 
immortal and celestial nature within us, as it is our 
principal part, our God-like manhood, which alone 
distinguishes us from the beasts that perish — should 
be our chief concern. He was reminded that these 
things can not prolong our lives here, nor secure 
happiness for us hereafter. He ^v^as reminded that 
true spiritual soul-joy, as distinguished from that 
which is merely animal and sensuous, does not come 
from without a man, but from within — not from his 
circumstances, but his character. 

6. The warning is emphatic: ''Take heed and be- 
ware!' You must guard against this covetousness 
with great care and caution, else it will grow upon 
you. It will grow by what it feeds on. It will in- 
crease with increasing fortune. It will enlarge itself 
as death and the grave, and never be satisfied. It 



322 



THE PARABLE 



will finally eat out all piety, and turn the soul utterly 
away from God. It will stifle benevolence, and dry 
up every noble and generous impulse, transforming 
the soul into a moral desert. It will wear you out 
with care and toil, and then leave you to eternal 
poverty and want. 

But as if all this were not a sufficient warning 
against covetousness, the Savior introduces the 
parable of The Rich Fool to enforce it. 

1. We remark first that the mere possession of 
wealth was not the sin of this rich fool. Simply to 
own and manage in a lawful way the good things 
which the God of providence bestows, is not a sin, 
but a duty. 

2. Nor did his sin and folly consist in the manner 
in which he acquired his wealth. It is not charged 
that he was unjust or oppressive in his dealings. He 
is not impeached as a thief, or robber, or sharper, 
or extortioner. It is not said that he wronged wid- 
ows and orphans, or kept back the wages of his 
hirelings. He had large and rich grounds, which, 
under skillful cultivation, brought forth abundantly. 
In all this there appears nothing but what is fair, 
just and honorable. 

3. His sin and folly consisted in setting his heart 
and hopes on wealth. He aimed no higher than to 
acquire and enjoy it. He spent his life in ^^ heaping 
together treasures for himself, and was not rich 
toward God.'' He lived to himself and for himself, 
recognizing no obligation either to God or man. He 
lived as if there were no God, no soul, no eternity; 
as if present wealth, and pleasure, and splendor, 



OF THE RICH FOOL. 323 

were the chief good; as if there were nothing else 
to care for. His prosperity only aggravated his' 
greed. He went about to pull down his darns and 
build greater. He would heap together treasures like 
the sand of the sea. His prosperity thus ensnared 
him into a deeper covetousness. Long before, it 
had been said, ''He that loveth silver shall not be 
satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance 
with increase.""^ Long before, men had been ad- 
monished not to set their hearts on wealth when 
their gain was increased. But all this had no effect 
with him ; his covetousness increased with his wealth. 
4. His soul got completely broken loose from God. 
His vision was bounded by earth. He said, Wliat 
shall I do? Had he been a good man, he would 
have said, ''These fields, and fruits, and flocks, and 
folds are God's; I will employ them in his cause and 
for his glory. I am but God's steward. I will feed 
the hungry and clothe the naked ; I will bid schools 
rise for the education of the young, asylums for the 
unfortunate, and hospitals for the sick; so far as my 
means can aid them, science and the arts shall flour- 
ish; the leaves of the blessed Bible, scattered on 
the wings of the wind, shall fall fair and fast like 
snowflakes, around every habitation; the foaming 
prow of the missionary ship shall cut and curl the 
glassy waves of all the seas, as it bears self-denying 
and self-expatriated missionaries with the light of the 
gospel, far hence to lands darkened with the shadow 
of death ; churches, with sky-kissing spires shall rise 
at home, and the joyful sound of the gospel shall 

"'^ Ecclesiastes v. 10. 



3^4 



THE PARABLE 



be heard in every town and village and neighbor- 
'hood." I say, had he been a good man, one who 
had Jesus Christ formed in his heart, thus would he 
have spoken and acted. Had he been in heart like 
the Savior, he would in life been like the Savior — 
like him who came from heaven to earth, and gave 
himself to toil and agony, that God might be glori- 
fied and heaven filled with ransomed souls. He 
would have regarded his toil and tillage as means 
wherewith to achieve these glorious ends. 

6. But not thus did the rick fool decide. Note his 
form of expression: ^^My fruits,*' ^^ my goods,'' ^' my 
barns," and ''my soul." (Vs. i8, 19.) All is his, 
and he is his own. Who is lord over him? He is 
his own master and the master of his property ; he 
is an independent sovereign, isolated from God and 
the Church, from his country and his race, and he 
will live as he lists. 

7. Observe the end he has in view in all his plans 
and labors: **And I will say to my soul. Soul, thou 
hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine 
ease, eat, drink, and be merry." (V. 19.) What a 
finished picture of many modern church-members 
have we here! The man intends, after getting 
abundance of wealth, to retire from business and en- 
joy it. He will close up his concerns, remove from 
the bustle of business, and retire to some magnifi- 
cent country-seat. Visions of splendid mansions 
and lovely lawns, with their trees, and streams, and 
walks, and lakes, and flowers, and fruits, are dancing 
before him. Dreams of a green and honored old 
age, of a long, lingering, lovely evening after his hot 



OF THE RICH FOOL, 325 

and hurried day of toil, are floating up and down in 
his imagination. 

Poor, misguided man ! He had no right thus to 
Hve to himself and for himself; and he had no right 
to retire from business as long as his capacity for it 
remained. He was placed here to watch and work 
and pray for himself and his race, and to advance 
the kingdom of God in our world. He was intrusted 
with ten talents by his Lord, and received the charge, 
*' Occupy till I come;'' and he had no right to em- 
ploy all those talents in his own behalf, instead of 
for his Master; and still less had he a right, after 
having gained all that he wanted, to wrap his talents 
in a napkin and bury them in the earth. No ! no ! 
unless incapacitated for business, you are not at 
liberty, in God's sight, to retire from it. If, indiffer- 
ent to the miseries of mankind, you first use all your 
time and talents In providing, for yourselves, and 
then, having done this, you retire from business to 
eat, drink, and be merry in some splendid country- 
seat, I tell you the fate of the rich fool will be yours. 
The curse of God will follow you into your place of 
retirement and ease. It will break out like a fretting 
leprosy in the walls of your splendid villa. It will 
rest like a black blight and mildew upon your slop- 
ing, nicely rounded lawns. It will spread like an 
incurable murrain among your herds. It will canker 
your gold and silver, and eat up your garments like 
a moth. The bitter curse of Meroz will come upon 
you, because you **came not up to the help of the 
Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." 
I have observed that men of real piety, who arc so 



326 THE PARAniE 

misled, are generally stripped of their property be* 
fore they die ; and as for those who are not pious, 
some are so tortured ag to rush back into the city 
to drown their thoughts in a deluge of business; 
and others, unable longer to endure their miseries, 
hasten their own death. The largest proportional 
number of suicides are among those rich fools who, 
attempting to satsify their souls with an earthly por- 
tion, have retired from business **to eat, drink, and 
be merry/' 

Nay, my hearers, if you would be satisfied with 
long life, and see good days here, and be fitted for 
the divine splendors of a celestial habitation here- 
after, lead the life of faith, and toil, and self-denial, 
and self-sacrifice. Live for God and Christ and the 
eternal future; live for the Church, your country 
and your race. So live that the world shall be the 
better, and not the worse, that you have lived in it. 
Let your path be as the shining light, that shineth 
more and more unto the perfect day* 

*«So live tKat when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death ; 
Then go not, like the quarry slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeOn ; but sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, 
Like one that draws the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lays him down to pleasant dreams.'* 

But if ye will not take heed and beware of covet- 
ousness; if ye will still persist in living without God 
and without hope in the world; if ye will still isolate 
yourselves from God and from man, and live to your- 



OF THE RICH FOOL. 327 

self and for yourself; if ye will still go on in sin, 
dead to all that is noble and God-like in your nature; 
if ye will still play the part of this rich fool, then 
your fate shall be such as is described in the twen- 
tieth chapter of the Book of Job: *'In the fullness 
of his sufficiency he shall be in straits: every hand 
of the wicked shall be upon him. All darkness shall 
be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall con- 
sume him ; it shall go ill with him that is left in his 
tabernacle. The heaven shall reveal his iniquity; 
and the earth shall rise up against him. The increase 
of his house shall depart and his goods shall flow 
away in the day of his wrath. This is the portion of 
a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed 
him by God/^ 



328 '^HE PARABLE 



SERMON XIX. 



The Parable of the -Bare^en Fig- 

TF^E. 
LUKE XIIL 6-9. 



The commentators almost universally suppose 
this parable has primary reference to the Jewish 
nation. But they do so without the slightest au- 
thority from the text; against the clearest declara- 
tions of the context, showing it to be spoken to and 
concerning individuals, not nations ; and they give 
this interpretation as a pure obiter dictum, hardly one 
of them so much as pretending to assign a reason. 
That they have said so seems to be reason enough. 
That they are mistaken is shown by several consid- 
erations. 

I. If the Jewish nation is the fig-tree, then the 
vineyard in which it is planted must be the world. 
But this is contrary to the uniform use of this figure 
in the Holy Scriptures. There is not a single ex- 
ample of such a use of it from Genesis to Revela- 
tions. A vineyard is with the Bible a favorite 



OF THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 



329 



symbol of the ClmrcJi^ hut of the world, never, 
never. Genesis xlix. 1 1, Deuteronomy xxxii. 32. 
Psalm Ixxx. 8-16. Isaiah v. 1--7 ; xxvii. 1-7. Jer- 
emiah ii, 21, Ezekiel xv. 1-6; xix, 10. Hosea x. 
I. Matthew XX, i; xvi. 21; xxviii. 33-44. Mark 
xii, 1-12. Luke xx. 9-18. John xv. 1-5. In 
these, and many other passages of the Old and New 
Testaments, the figure of a vine or vineyard is em- 
ployed in the way we have mentioned. Now, it is 
strange indeed, if the figure is in this parable used 
in a sense so unusual, and without any intimation of 
its change of meaning either in the text or context. 
2. That the parable was spoken to and concerning 
individuals is from the context as clear as sunshine. 
The circumstances were these: Jesus was teaching. 
A crowd of men were around him. He argued that 
men should repent and make up their peace with 
God betimes. '* When thou goest with thine adver- 
sary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give 
diligence that thou mayest be delivered from hirn ; 
lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver 
thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into 
prison." Luke xii. 58. From what follows it 
seems that some of those standing by applied these 
warnings and exhortations, as hearers are apt to do, 
to others rather than themselves — to the Galileans 
whom Pilate murdered and to the eighteen who 
were killed by the falling of the tower of Siloam. 
(xiii. 1-5.) In accordance with the Sadducean 
doctrine, they held that men always receive their 
punishments in this life, and that great misfortunes 
argue great crimes. Hence they supposed that the 
28 



330 THE PARABLE 

Savior's exhortations to repentance were applicable 
only to the greatest sinners. 

But Jesus would not allow these hearers to escape 
so easily. He brings the matter home to their own 
bosoms and consciences, by the solemn and repeated 
declaration, *' Except ye repent, ye shall all like- 
wise perish.'' Now in all this he makes no mention 
of the Jewish nation, does not even allude to it. 
All that he said was addressed to the individual men 
and women before him. 

3. The cas« of his hearers seems to have been 
this. They were Hebrews of pure blood, not Gali- 
leans of mixed blood. They had been regularly cir- 
cumcised, and were strict observers of the outward 
rights and forms of their religion. Hence they 
thought that Christ's solemn warnings did not refer 
to them, but to the Galileans and other like men. 
They were self-righteous. They trusted in their 
Jewish blood and Jewish forms, and it never occur- 
red to them that they were sinners, or that they were 
in danger of perdition, or that the Savior meant his 
discourse to apply to them. They trusted in their 
circumcision, as many men have since trusted in 
their baptism, to save them. They trusted also in 
their priests and sacrifices, in their temple and their 
liturgies and services, just as men are ever prone to 
do, and they thought when these were right all was 
right, and that they would be saved. 

But Jesus preached that they were sinners both in 
heart and life, just like other men, and that they 
must repent or perish — be inwardly converted or be 
lost. 



OF THE BA RREN FIG- TREE. 3 3 1 

Always and everywhere men have been prone to 
trust to outward and rituahstic duties, and to neg- 
lect the inward renovation of the heart, the sancti- 
fication and purity of soul, that are requisite to the 
enjoyment of God's favor and communion with him. 
And as no people under heaven were ever more 
prone to these fatal errors than the Jews, and as the 
people whom Jesus was addressing had fallen into 
them, and were continuing in them, to their ruin, he 
set himself to convince and convert them. He plies 
their minds and consciences with the strange and 
unwelcome truth that unless they attained to that 
great, moral and spiritual change, which is expressed 
by the word repentance^ they would inevitably per- 
ish. He taught them that though they were Jews 
of pure blood and though touching the ritual law 
blameless, yet they, just like other men, were wan- 
derers froni God and must return or be lost forever. 
He declared that they must not only observe the 
outward duties of their liturgy, but must serve God 
with a pure heart fervently ; that in order to do so, 
they must be converted, born again, created anew — 
must repent ; that they must abandon the broken 
cisterns of earth and return to God, the Living 
Fountain — must love, trust and worship him; and 
that without all this, notwithstanding their birth and 
blood, their privileges and services, they would cer- 
tainly perish, 

4. Our Savior next proceeded to assume in the 
parable that it was to bring about this repentance 
that their circumcision and their sanctuary, their 
ordinances and opportunities had been given them 



332 "PHE PARABLE 

of God. Their Church, with its prophets, priests 
and sacrifices, its altar, oracle and ordinances, was 
instituted, that by the blessing of divine grace upon 
the devout worshiper, he might be brought to re- 
pentance and recovered back to God. For this end 
did God make a covenant with Abraham, and renew 
it with Isaac, and confirm it with Jacob, even that 
he might have a seed, pure in heart, to serve him. 
For this end did he prepare a vineyard and plant it 
with figs and with the choicest vines, that it might 
bring forth to. him the fruits of holiness — ^judgment, 
mercy and the fear of God. And now, unless the 
ecclesiastical people should issue in the holiness of 
the ecclesiastical people, it would fail to its end; 
and unless the people who enjoyed the benefit of 
these august and sacred institutions should improve 
them to their conversion and sanctification, they 
would be judged for their dereliction of duty, and 
would meet with a heavier wrath and sorer over- 
throw from God than the heathen w^ho were less 
highly favored. All this and more is included and 
inculcated in the parable of the barren fig-tree — a 
parable which we now proceed to expound and 
apply. 

1. **A certain man." This means God. He is 
the owner of the Church, and the Church is his 
vineyard. Psalm Ixxx. 8-16. Isaiah v. 1-7. Jer- 
emiah ii. 21. Ezekiel xv. 1-6. Matthew xxi. 

33-43. 

2. **Had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard.'' The 
Jews whom the Savior was addressing were such 



OF THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 



.333 



fig-trees. Several points in this figure are worthy 
of a distinct consideration. 

(i.) It was a fig-tree that was planted in the vine- 
yard — not an oak of Bashan, nor a cedar of Lebanon, 
nor a fir-tree nor a pine — barren trees all of them. 
Had they been planted in the vineyard, though cul- 
tivated never so diligently, it had been foolish to 
expect them to bring forth fruit. But it was a fig- 
tree^ one of the fruit-bearing kind, that was trans- 
planted, and hence the expectation of fruit was 
reasonable. 

(2.) Not old, but j^^/;f^ trees are transplanted, 
and so this fig-tree was transplanted when young 
and tender, and while yet capable of being improved 
and invigorated by the diligent hand of culture. 

(3.) Let it be further noted that though it was a 
fig-tree, a tree of the fruit-bearing kind, still it was 
not a bearer a*s yet. It was not transplanted because 
it was now fruitful, but that it might become fruitful. 
How complete and beautiful the analogy between 
the course pursued toward the fig-tree by the lord 
of the vineyard and that pursued by the God of the 
Church toward the self-righteous and unconverted 
Jews, whom Jesus was addressing. They were fig- 
trees, trees of the fruit-bearing kind. They had 
sprung as scions from a sanctified stock. They were 
not children of the heathen, but of Abraham and 
the patriarchs and prophets. They were of a holy 
and a fruitful race, and therefore from them a life 
fruitful in holiness was to have been expected. 

Like the fig-tree of the parable, they had been 
transplanted into the Church, the vineyard of God, at 



334 ^^^ PARABLE 

an early age. They had been born into it, and were 
by birth heirs of its rich heritage of privileges and 
blessings. They had received the sign of circum- 
cision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, and also 
of the promise that He who had been their fathers* 
God would also be theirs. They had been born, and 
had grown up and lived, in the Church of the living 
God. That they might become fruitful like fig-trees; 
that they might be holy, sanctified in their whole 
body, soul and spirit ; that they might be renewed 
in the spirit of their minds, and be made righteous 
in the whole tenor of their lives ; for these ends the 
Church was ordained, and for these ends they were 
born heirs of its glorious blessings. But to them all 
these things had been in vain. They remained un- 
converted and unfruitful, unrenewed in heart and 
life. With all their punctilious regard for the out- 
ward form and the ritual of religion, He who look- 
eth on the heart knew them to be barren and dead, 
destitute alike of piety and charity. Hence with 
them the alternative was repentance or perdition. 

3. **Then said he to the dresser of his vineyard. 
Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on 
this fig-tree and find none: cut it down; why cum- 
bereth it the ground?'' It is thus Jesus convicts his 
Jewish auditors of their guilt and danger. Thus he 
demonstrates that something more is necessary to 
salvation than to be a Pharisee — something more 
than to have been born of believing parents, bred in 
the Church, and made a participant in its holy sacra- 
ments and services. But in this verse also there are 



OF THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 335 

several things which call for distinct note and ex- 
position. 

(i.) The vine-dresser, who intercedes for the bar- 
ren tree, must signify the Lord Jesus Christ, who is 
at the right of God and ever lives to make interces- 
sion for us. The world is spared at the intercession 
of Christ. Doubtless also fruitless members of the 
Church, and rebels against the gospel, are often 
spared at his intercession. We are as much indebted 
to his intercession as to his sacrifice of himself in 
our behalf. Fruitless hearer, think of this. It should 
sink down like lead into your heart. At the very 
time you are rejecting him on earth, crucifying him 
afresh, putting him to an open shame, and counting 
his blood of the covenant an unholy thing, he is in 
heaven, pleading with God to spare you, to wait 
longer, just a little longer, to see if you will not 
bear fruit. Alas! baptized youth of my charge, in- 
structed but unconverted hearer, whoever you be, 
what iniquity have you found in this glorious and 
this gracious Jesus, that you will have none of him 
— that, rather than embrace the great salvation he so 
freely offers, you would rather encounter the tre- 
mendous hazards of a final banishment from heaven's 
glories, and a final destruction from the presence of 
the Lord and from the glory of his power? But we 
proceed. 

(2.) The command is, ''cut it down." The lord 
of the vineyard would bear with this barren tree no 
longer. He had borne with it three years (if fig 
trees bear, they bear in that time), and now when 
all patience is exhausted, and all hope gone, he would 



336 THE PARABLE 

forbear no longer. He would away with the useless 
tree. With the ax of judgment he would fell it to 
the earth, and cast it into the fire to be burned. In 
this respect, too, the fig-tree represents the circum- 
cised or baptized, but unfruitful members of the 
Church. It represents the Jews to whom the Savior 
was speaking. They had long been in his Church. 
From infancy they had been familiar with its divine 
laws and ordinances, its magnificent temple, its 
sacred priests, its gray-haired prophets, its conse- 
crated offerings and its holy Shekinah. God's sun 
had shone upon this vineyard, and his rains and dews 
had watered it. He had visited and plied these men 
by his holy oracle, his Spirit, his ministers and his 
providences, and yet they remained unconverted, 
dead in trespasses and sins. 

But now, at length, the time had come when his 
patience was exhausted. He would forbear no 
longer. He would be trifled with and mocked not 
another moment. He resolves to give them up, and 
that they shall find that it is a (earful thing to fall 
into the hands of the living God. His fury comes 
up into his face and the terrible sentence goes forth: 
''Cut it down; why cumbefeth it the ground?" Oh, 
my dear young friends, I beseech you to consider 
whether or not you are in danger of incurring this 
sentence. Turn, repent, before God shall forever 
forsake you. Give diligence that thou mayest be 
delivered from the all-devouring justice of the fiery 
law; ''from thy adversary, lest he hale thee to the 
judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and 
the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee thou 



OF THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 



337 



shalt not come out thence till thou hast paid the very- 
last mite." 

4. But let us examine this sentence further. He 
gives reasons for it. First, the tree was useless ; 
and, second, it was pernicious. 

(i.) First, as we have already seen, it was a fruit- 
less tree. The labor bestowed upon it was all in 
vain. Those whom it represents were barren of 
good. So far as any good result was concerned, it 
had been as well that they had never been planted 
in the vineyard, but had been born of unbelieving 
parents and lived among the heathen. They had 
grown up to maturity in the Church, and still bore 
no fruit, and the indications were that they never 
would. They were still unconverted sinners, and 
such they seemed likely to remain. 

(2.) But, in the second place, they were not only 
useless in the Church, but positively pernicious. They 
citmbered the ground; they marred and damaged it ; 
they occupied room which might else have been al- 
lotted to fruitful trees ; their roots drank up nutri- 
tious juices, which had else gone to nourish the 
fruitful trees around them. Precisely such were 
those whom Jesus addressed. They were not only 
barren, but baleful. Ceasing to be fig, they became 
upas trees. Barren themselves, they blasted others. 
By their unworthy lives they brought a reproach 
upon religion. They became scandals and stum- 
bling-blocks. Through them the name of God was 
blasphemed among the Gentiles. As with Eli's 
son's who wrought pollution and folly in Israel; as 
29 



338 THE PARABLE 

\vitli Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel 
to sin, so it was with them. 

Thus it ever is that the worst enemies of pure and 
tmdefiled reh'gion are unworthy^ barren, dead pro- 
fessors. They are stumbHng-blocks to their fellow- 
members. Their influence tends to chill and be- 
numb all zeal and life. It operates as an extinguisher 
upon the piety that begins to be kindled in other 
bosoms. They spread coldness and inactivity in 
those around them. Nor does their influence cease, 
when, like a cold plague, it has leavened and pois- 
oned their fellow-members. It spreads afar ; it ex- 
tends beyond the bounds of the Church ; it causes 
the uninstructed, the irreligious and the profane to 
revile all that is holy, and to despise all that is good. 
If all communing church-members were what they 
ought to be, or even what they profess to be, the 
.whole world would be converted to Christ in one 
generation. 

5. We call your attention to another thought con- 
tained in this terrible sentence. There are holiness 
and justice in it, but there are love and mercy also. 
Yea, here mercy rejoices against judgment. Ter- 
rible as this sentence is, love devised and the sweet 
lips of mercy pronounced it. It is in mercy to 
others that God destroys barren professors. They 
are cut down and cast into the burnings, not merely 
because they are barren, but because they are posi- 
tively injurious. They cumber the ground; they 
do injury to religion ; they are an impediment to the 
Church, and a reproach to its name; they are a 
stumbling-block to the world. At all times^ and in 



OF THE BARREN FIG- TREE, 



339 



every way, they are an offense and a curse. Hence 
even the love and mercy of God rise up and ask that 
they be cut down and removed. Awful condition 
for any man to be in, when even the divine mercy 
pleads for his destruction 1 Awful condition for a 
man, when even infinite love demands that, by the 
withdrawal of all restraining grace, he shall be given 
up to make an open and total shipwreck of con- 
science and character and hope, so that he may be 
utterly separated from the Zion of God, chased out 
of the world and shut up in darkness forever. 

But still, as we behold and tremble, let us remem* 
ber that it is /oz/e that pronounces the sentence of 
judgment and love that executes it— love to the 
Church and the world, and for the high and ever- 
lasting interests of the souls of men. This view of 
the subject we ought also to take when contempla- 
ting the penal fires in store for wicked men hereafter. 

The judgments which have once and again swept 
over the world, destroying it by a deluge of waters, 
consuming its rank and reeking cities in tempests of 
fire, or sweeping its effete and corrupt monarchies 
as with the black besom of destruction, have all and 
ever been judgments of love. And when the great 
wheels of justice and judgment roll on from time out 
through eternity, and call forth the worm that never 
dies and the fires that ever burn, they are still the 
judgment wheels of love to the universe. ''Zion 
heard and was glad; and the daughters of Judah re- 
joiced because of thy judgments, O Lord. ^ * * 
Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, 
and they tliat dwell therein. Let the floods clap 



340 ^^^ PARABLE 

their hands ! let the hills be joyful together, before 
the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with 
righteousness shall he judge the world and the people 
with equity/'^ God's most righteous and terrible 
judgments are but judgments of love* The walls of 
Tophetj Walls of fire though they be, are yet walls 
of omnipotent and immutable love, wherewith he en- 
girdles all the meek and quiet ones that are in all the 
heavens, making them dwell in safety, shielded from 
the outrage and the wrong of the violent and wicked, 
who are imprisoned by them* 

6. **And he answering said, Lord, let it alone this 
year also, till I shall dig about it and dung it/' The 
vine-dresser, Jesus Christ, asks that it may be spared 
a little longer, until he shall make one more trial, if, 
peradventure, it may bring forth fruit. The divine 
merCy is reluctant to cut the sinner down, even when 
both justice and goodness unite and seem to demand 
the sacrifice. Renewed efforts in the providence of 
God are made for his Conversion, Louder and more 
earnestly does Jesus knock at the door of his heart. 
The Spirit calls, and, perhaps, the conscience half 
awakens once more. Divine^ Providence comes near 
the man, and in a series of alluring or alarming in« 
cidents, awakens the soul to some degree of sensi- 
bility; and then the divine word read and preached 
flashes some last, lingering rays upon the heart. 
Heaven and earth, for one last, brief period, seem 
to conspire together, and with a thousand voices of 
alluring and alarming accents cry, "Repent or per« 

'^ Psalm xcvii. 8 ; xcviiu 7-9. 



OF THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 



341 



ish; return to God or wander an outcast forever.'* 
This is the last effort. 

7. *'And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then 
after that thou shalt cut it down." It shall be 
spared no longer. The ax is already at the root 
of the tree, and it shall be cut down and cast into 
the devouring fire. If the sinner shall know and 
heed this in the day of his last, merciful visitation, 
well; but if not, let him look well to his goings — 
there is but a step between him and death. He 
shall cumber the ground no longer. He shall trifle 
with the divine patience no further. He shall be 
cut down. Restraining grace shall keep him back 
no longer from a life of open profligacy and dis- 
grace and misery. Divine clemency shall no longer 
restrain the arrows of death from piercing him, and 
the fires of hell from pursuing him with their ter- 
rors. Henceforth he shall be hopeless forever and 
ever. 

CONCLUSION. 

And now, my hearers, need I spend much time in 
applying the pictured truths of this beautiful parable? 
Does not many a conscience here respond to them ? 
Are there not in this church more than a few for 
whom this Scripture was written? Like the congre- 
gation to whom Jesus uttered this parable, you were 
all born in a Christian land, and many of you of 
Christian parents. Like them, you were by birth 
planted in the Church of God ; and from little fig- 
trees you have grown years ago to the size and age of 
fruit-bearing. For many a day, on many a Sabbath, 
by a sermon, a providence, a pastor or a friend, the 



342 THE PARABLE 

great Master, who planted you as trees in his vine- 
yard, has come, seeking fruit from you, and found 
none. Neither he, nor the world, nor the Church, 
nor you yourselves, have been the better for all the 
care and all the cost which have been expended on 
your salvation. 

(i.) He has come to you by his word, seeking the 
fruit of piety. In early youth he called, **Son, 
daughter, give me thy heart." But you gave it to 
idols. Varying his voice, he said, '* Remember 
now thy Creator in the days of thy youth," but you 
put him far away. You gave yourselves to vanity, 
and God was not in all your thoughts. Time passed, 
years fled, seasons changed, suns rose and shone 
and set, moons w^axed and waned; but there was no 
day nor hour in which the Bible and heaven-sent 
messengers did not cry aloud in his name, *'Unto 
you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of 
men. Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die, O 
house of Israel?" Thus, day by day, has he called, 
but you have closed your ear, like the deaf adder, 
that will not hear the voice of the charmer, though 
he were cunning, and could charm never so wisely. 

(2.) Time and again has God made conscience and 
his Holy Spirit his messengers to ask you for his 
fruits in their seasons. But. you have insulted his 
messengers, and sent them away empty. And now 
it may be conscience has ceased to warn and the 
Holy Spirit has ceased to strive, and you 'are left 
hopelessly dead in trespasses and sins. 

(3.) God has sought your conversion through the 
instrumentality of friends and teachers. Pastors, 



OF THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 343 

parents, brothers and sisters, friends and compan- 
ions — many of them now silent in the grave — have, 
by conversation, by entreaty, by tears and by ago- 
nizing prayers, besought you to attend to the things 
which belong to your peace ; and yet you remain in 
the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity, hav- 
ing no hope and without God in the world ; and 
were you to die now and die as you now are, you 
would perish forever. 

(4. ) Unwilling to give you up, he has made the 
mighty hand of Providence second the efforts of 
friends and teachers, and the influence of the word, 
conscience and the Holy Spirit. He has sometimes 
warned you by death, by sickness, by accidents, and 
by the loss of friends. He gave you hair-breadth 
escapes from the fell destroyer, at the same time 
giving you space to repent, and to prepare for judg- 
ment and eternity; and yet each danger has only 
hardened you more and more, and made you more 
and more impenitent. 

(5.) Universal nature seconds the efforts of all the 
others to make you happy. Day utters speech unto 
day, and night unto night showeth knowledge. The 
brook, the bird, the breeze, the wave, cry aloud of 
God. The summer and the winter, as they come 
and go, admonish you of your change. The fierce 
convulsions in the natural elements around you, 
with lungs of iron and voice of thunder, proclaim, 
^^This is not your rest. Build not your house upon 
these shifting sands, but upon the Rock of Ages, 
where it may stand forever." 

It is thus, my friends, that many of you have^ by 



344 



THE PARABLE 



God's sovereign grace, been born of pious parents, 
scions of the parent fig-tree — a tree long since trans- 
planted to bloom in heaven. You were in early 
infancy, by baptism, planted in God's vineyard, the 
Church, and ever since you have been in every way 
cultivated and cared for. And now, remember that 
the great Master expects fruit. Shall he expect it 
in vain? Will you delay longer, and longer risk the 
terrible sentence, '^Cut it down?'' 

But, remember, further, that the tree was not only 
barren but bad. It was not only useless, but perni- 
cious. It not only did no good, it did harm. It 
cumbered the ground, drinking up its juices, shading 
its plants, and occupying room. Alas ! oh, alas ! so 
it is with many of you. Allow me to say so; for it 
is true, and you ought to consider it. Allow me 
this freedom, for God has burdened me with a fear- 
ful responsibility in respect to you, and if these be 
ungracious words, yet they proceed from a loving 
tongue. As an under vine-dresser, a laborer in the 
Lord's vineyard, I am charged to look after the fig- 
tree committed to my care. Allow me, then, 
impenitent hearers, to press upon you this consider- 
ation, that every barren tree ^cumbers the ground. 
Every unconverted man and woman among you not 
only does no good, but is doing harm, some more 
than others, but all doing more or less. All of you 
are standing in the way of the salvation of others 
around you. ^' He that is not for me " (says Jesus) 
**is against me;" and therefore you are against him. 
The whole influence of your example, conversation 
and life is against him. Your associates are 



OF THE BARREN FIG-TREE 345 

affected by it, and some of them have been ruined 
by it. It is probable there are persons to-day in 
outer darkness, and shall be there forever, who were 
sunk thither mainly by your influence. And I know 
that there are others yet alive, who have been much 
injured, and whose eternal all is now in jeopardy 
through you ; and they in turn are already cumber- 
ing the ground — already by their conversation, 
spirit and example are commencing what must issue 
in a work of moral havoc and ruin around them. 

Finally, consider that this state of things must 
soon end. Your time of probation will soon be 
past and past forever. We are now nearing the 
close of another year — standing by the bedside of 
dying time. It may be Jesus, the great Vine- 
dresser, as we are about to enter a new year, is 
pleading for you in heaven, and saying, *^ Spare it 
this year alone, and if it bear fruit, well; but if not, 
then after that thou shalt cut it down.'' Will you 
remain irreligious longer? Why will you die ? 



346 



THE PARABLE 



SERMON XX. 

The Parable of the Great.^upper. 



LUKE XIV. 21. 



We have seen that the offer of the gospel is uni- 
versal; that it is to all men, ''to every man," to 
''whosoever will,'' "to every creature." I have 
made the offer to you ; I have called you to the sup- 
per of the great Master; I have offered it to you 
freely, without money and without price ; I have as- 
sured you of a cordial welcome and of glorious en- 
tertainment, if you will but come; I have instructed 
you that no preparation on your part is necessary. 
If you are but willing to come, you shall find all 
things ready. 

Now have you all accepted? Remains there no 
unbeliever here to-day? Oh, would I could believe 
that all of you had embraced the great salvation ! 
Would, as I look abroad over this assemblage of 
acquaintances and neighbors and personal friends, 
that I could believe, hope, that you were God's— all 
God's— that the bitterness of death had passed away 
from you all, and that we could all meet in glory, at 



OF THE GREAT SUPPER. 347 

the marriage supper of the Lamb! But I can not 
be so happy as to indulge this pleasing thought. I 
have, alas ! too many reasons to fear that many of 
my hearers are still ^^with one consent making ex- 
cuses" for not accepting the offers, which, in God's 
name, I have made you. 

Having shown that your excuses are invalid, I 
shall now, as the text requires, show that your un- 
belief is a sin with which God has great cause to be 
angry. 

1. And first remember that you are all sinners, 
very great sinners, guilty and condemned before God, 
unclean and unholy, and so not fit for the favor and 
the fellowship of God. Not that I suppose you to 
be low, coarse, brutal sinners. Such men do not 
usually attend upon the services of the sanctuary, 
though some such may be here to-day, and, if so, are 
of course addressed in this argument. But, my unbe- 
lieving friends, however moral and orderly and gen- 
teel, however refined and tasteful and elegant you 
may be, still you are sinners before God, very great 
sinners. You know this to be true. Not a man 
lives whose conscience does not condemn him, if he 
will but listen to it. From your Bibles, from the 
pulpit, and from your own accusing consciences, you 
have learned, or might have learned, much of the 
wickedness of your own heart and life. 

2. And it is only by believing in Christ that you 
can be released from your state of guilt, wickedness 
and condemnation, and be saved. There is no other 
peace for your soul than peace in Jesus Christ; there 
is no other reconciliation with God than reconcilia- 



348 



THE PARABLE 



tion through Immanuel; there is no other name 
given under heaven whereby you must be saved than 
his. And you know this to be true ; you admit it 
to be true; it is so stated in the Bible; it is stated 
there so plainly that it is impossible for you to have 
missed finding it. If you have not found it there, it 
is because you have willfully closed your eyes to the 
truth ; and, if finding it, you do not believe it to 
be true, then you are an infidel. 

3. Furthermore, you find in that same Bible, that 
God offers salvation to all men, that he offers it to 
you — full, free, instant and everlasting salvation. No 
matter who or what you are, or have been, you are 
invited to this feast. To you is the word of this sal- 
vation sent. God is willing and proclaims himself 
willing to take you now, just as you are, to pardon 
you and to be at peace with you ; to sanctify your 
whole spirit and soul and body ; to be your leader 
and guide, your strength and your stay, your ever- 
lasting all and in all, your salvation in time and your 
portion in eternity. All this God offers to do — to 
do now — to do freely, without any money or merit 
on your part. And you refuse. All this has he 
over and often offered to do, and you have refused. 
All this is he now offering to do, and ye refuse. And 
is all this without sin on your part? Is this consist- 
ent with the duty you owe to God and to yourselves ? 

4. I know you feel that you are not pursuing a 
very safe course. But are you not also pursuing a 
very wicked one? I know you feel that the way you 
are in is a way in which it were not safe to die ; but 
do you not feel that it is a way in which you offend 



OF THE GREAT SUPPER. 34p 

God ? Is not this trampling on the blood of Christ, 
and doing despite unto the Spirit of grace ? True, 
you feel there is danger in delay, and you think not 
of delaying always. Perhaps it is your purpose not 
to delay a great while longer. But does it not occur 
to you that it is the height of presumptuous rebell- 
ion to delay at all, even for a single instant ? And 
when you sometimes reflect, uneasily, and with dark 
forebodings, on your sins before God, and your dan- 
ger, do you not totally forget the greatest of all 
your sins, and the most terrific of all your dangers— 
the sin and danger of unbelief? 

5. But whatever you may think of it, our text 
assures us of what God thinks of it and hov/ he will 
deal with it. No matter what your excuses maybe, 
with the Master of the feast they are not excuses at 
all, but aggravations of your sin, and when he hears 
them *'he is angry/' And consider, I pray -you, 
how he manifests his anger. Consider how he dealt 
with the unbelieving Jews. He finally rejected them ; 
he gave them over to a reprobate mind ; he swore 
in his wrath that they should not taste of his supper, 
and sent forth his armies and burnt up their cities. 
Here let us note the terrible manner in which he has 
manifested his anger upon them, for their unbeliev- 
ing rejection of his mercy. He made them the same 
offers which he makes you to-day; he would have 
received them and saved them ; he would have saved 
them from all their enemies, and from the hands of 
them that hated them, and have been the glory of 
his people, Israel. As a hen gathereth her chickens 
under her wings, he would have protected and cher- 



350 TH^ PARABLE 

ished them, but they would not; they would not 
receive him as the Messiah of God, nof Confide in 
him fof salvation, nor obey his law, nor receive his 
teachings. Consequently God was angry, and they 
were rejected of him, and all the curses which are 
written in his book were sent upon them. And now, 
for over eighteen hundred years^ they have stood, 
the living monument of God^s anger against unbe- 
lief. They obstinately rejected Christ, and now 
Christ has rejected them. They hated Christ, and 
now he has made the pestilence cleave to them and 
consume them, from generation to generation. He 
has smitten them with a consumption, and with a 
fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme 
burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and 
with mildew. The heaven that is over their head 
has been brass, and the earth that is under their 
feet* has been iron, and the rain of their land has 
been powder and dust. Jehovah has smitten them 
before their enemies. They went out one way 
against them, and have fled seven ways before them, 
and have been removed into all the kingdoms of the 
earth. Their carcasses have been meat to all the 
fowls of the air and to all the beasts of the field, 
and there have been none to fray them away. 
Jehovah has smitten them with madness and bhnd- 
ness and astonishment of heart. He has made 
them to grope at noon-day, as the blind grope 
in darkness. They have only been oppressed and 
spoiled evermore, and have become an astonishment 
and a proverb and a by-word among the nations. 
And during all this long and weary woe of centu- 



OF THE GREAT SUPPER. 



351 



ries, they have not found ease, nor has the sole of 
their foot found rest. Among all nations whither 
they have goWQy have they been driven. But where- 
ever they have gone, God has given them there a 
trembling of heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of 
mind. And their life has been in doubt before them ; 
they have feared by day and by night, and have had 
none assurance of their life, insomuch that when it 
was evening they cried, *' Would to God it were 
morning, ^' and when it was morning, ' * Would to God 
it were evening,'^ for the fear of their hearts where- 
with they had feared, and for the sight of their eyes 
which they have seen. * 

Now why this uttermost wrath upon Israel? Why 
this trouble, and trepidation, and treading down ? Why 
this famine, and war, and banishment, and blight, 
and mildew ? This madness, and blindness, and as- 
tonishment of heart? It was because they would 
not accept the invitation to the supper; it was be- 
cause they would not rest on and believe in Christ. 
He would have folded them to his bosom, but they 
put him far away. They were too much engrossed 
by farms and oxen and wives to receive the Lord as 
the portion of their soul. Like yourselves, my 
hearers, they were too intent upon houses, and har- 
vests, and business, and barter, and weddings, and 
witcheries, to spend serious thoughts upon the dis- 
tant but mighty realities that were hurrying upon 
them ; and so they deliberately put Christ away from 
them and sold their souls for a mess of pottage. Do 
not tell me they were greater sinners than you, and 

^••' Deuteronomy xxviil. 21-67. 



352 



THE PARABLE 



that they were punished because they crucified 
Christ. I tell you, and the text tells you, that it 
was for refusing Christ. Even after the crucifixion 
the gospel was preached unto them ; they were in- 
vited, and urged, and entreated, and importuned, to 
turn and live; and had that guilty people done so, 
they would have been spared. It was not the mere 
physical act of crucifixion, but it was the unbelief 
that led them to the act, and which, still rankling in 
their hearts, led them, under one pretense or an- 
other, as it now leads you, obstinately to persist in 
rejecting the offered Mediator. This obstinate un- 
belief it was that brought their sorrow of long cen- 
turies upon them, that drew down the lightning from 
the surcharged heavens upon them. 

Consider ^then, my friends, your condition. You 
are not gross and scandalous sinners; you respect 
the second table of the law; you discharge your 
duties to your fellow-men; you have reputation for 
morality, and justice, and gentility. But you live 
every day in the commission of a greater offense than 
would be all these together. You live in unbelief; you 
neglect the great salvation ; you know you are sinners ; 
reason and conscience and the word of God tell you 
that you are very great sinners, and yet you reject 
God's plan for saving you — the only plan by which 
you can be saved. You deliberately choose to live 
in sin ; to continue unreconciled to God ; to trample 
on the blood of Christ; to count it an unholy thing, 
or, to say the least, that you see no need of him, 
and that you desire not the knowledge of his ways. 

These are some of the things with which you are 



OF THE GREAT SUPPER, 



353 



chargeable, whilst you live in the sin of unbelief, 
and these are some oi the things which, unless 
timely repentance prevent it, will result in the just 
and unspeakable aggravation of your final condem- 
nation. 

I wish exceedingly, my hearers, that I could per- 
suade, you to look on unbelief as a sin, and as one 
of the greatest of sins. I am persuaded you do not 
think of it aright. When, from Sabbath to Sabbath, 
I urge you to flee from the coming wrath, to lay 
hold on Christ and his offered salvation ; when I 
urge you, by all the glories of heaven, by all the 
terrors of hell, by the worth of the soul, by the 
length of eternity, by the love of Christ, by the 
strivings of the Spirit, by the shortness of life, by 
the certainty of death, by all the motives, in short, 
which ought to have force with spiritual and immor- 
tal beings, to come to the supper, to lay hold on 
Christ, to bring your wretched persons to him, for 
justifying righteousness and for sanctifying grace, 
and when you refuse — when, the services over, you 
venture to rise from your seats and go home, with- 
out yielding yourselves to Christ, to be sanctified 
and to be saved by him and to be his servants for- 
ever — when so many of you do feel, no doubt, that 
you have done a very unsafe thing, that such a 
course is dangerous, and you think of some vague, 
unsettled time in the future, when you will do dif- 
ferently — but did it ever occur to you, that your 
conduct was something more than unsafe — that it 
was wicked — that when the guests were invited and 
did not accept the invitation that the king was 
30 



354 ^^^ PARABLE 

wroth on account of it? Many, no doubt, are the 
sins with which your conscience charges you through 
the week; but has it never occurred to you, that the 
greatest of all, nay, that a greater than all of them 
put together, is the sin which, from Sabbath to Sab- 
bath, you commit in refusing Christ as your Savior? 
We hear much of the sins which are common 
among all classes of citizens. We lament, for ex- 
ample, the sin of Sabbath desecration. Our hearts 
are oppressed with the sight which our streets and 
our places of public resort present from Sabbath to 
Sabbath. Our ears tingle at the oath and the blas- 
phemies to which we are compelled to listen every 
day. Our sympathies are agonized over sons and- 
friends and neighbors, who destroy themselves in 
drunken debauch. We bow ourselves down in the 
very sadness of sorrow at the exhibition of godless- 
ness, which we have witnessed from year to year, 
among those high in place and power in our lancj. 
We deplore the lust of national aggrandizement, 
which is rife among all our population. But did it 
never occur to you, that unbelief, the rejection of 
Christ, was a sin more common, and one that cries 
louder to God than all these together — that, in fact, 
this is the Alma Mater, which cherishes all those 
crimes which we so deplore ; that it is the very head 
and chief of all ; that this alone, in its universality 
and its enormity, overbalances by an almost infinite 
preponderance all our other sins together, and that 
great and crying as it is, it is the very one with 
which so many of you are chargeable? Perhaps 
there is not a man among you all who would not 



OF THE ORE A T SUPPER, 355 

shrink back in horror from any one of the crimes I 
have mentioned. I am deceived in my people, if 
there are any here who have lost their veneration 
for the sanctity of the holy Sabbath; or who are 
not shocked at the hearing of profanity from the 
lips which God at first attuned to praise and prayer ; 
or that would not withdraw their steps from the 
house of the impudent and the strange woman, as 
they would from the paths that go down to hell. 
But has it never occurred to you, that your daily 
and hourly disbelief is a sin that overtops them all? 
You lament that so many trample upon the Sab- 
bath, and yet you trample upon the choicest heart- 
blood of the God of the Sabbath. You deplore 
that any one should utter oaths and blasphemies, 
and yet you call the very blood of the covenant, 
wherewith Christ was sanctified, an unholy thing. 
You sigh over the wrongs that are inflicted upon the 
widow, the orphan and the slave, and yet you 
smother your own conscience to death and do 
despite to the Spirit of God. 

I would like to impress these thoughts upon you. 
I would like you to think more of the sin and the 
danger of unbelief. 

You think when I urge you to come to Christ, 
that it is at your option whether you do so or not. 
You never dream of criminality in the case. Or, 
if you know it is so, still the knowledge is thrown 
by among the useless lumber of the mind, and it is 
as though you knew it not. You may have learned 
it, but you have never laid to heart, that the King 
is wroth, when you begin to make excuses, or when 



356 



THE PARABLE 



you procrastinate — that great as may have been the 
sins of any of you, through the week that is past 
away, the sin with which you commenced the week 
and which ran all through it, with which you are 
now commencing another week — I mean the sin of 
rejecting Jesus Christ, as your Savior, is the great 
crowning, crying sin of all, the one which more than 
all the others will draw down the hottest, heaviest, 
hardest vengeance on you. 

Let us look at this sin. Let us analyze it. Let 
us measure its proportions, and I am sure you will 
agree with me. I, in God's name, do this day 
invite you to this feast. I offer you Christ and all 
his fullness, and urge you to accept the offer; and 
very many of you pay no attention whatever. For 
some reason or other, you go home unbelievers and 
non-professors. Now what is the sin you commit 
in so doing ? If you leave the church to-day, as in 
days that are past, without coming to Christ and 
surrendering yourselves heart and soul to him, 
what, I ask, is the character of the sin which you 
commit? 

In the first place, unbelief is a rejection of God's 
plan of love for your salvation. You are sinners, 
and as such are obnoxious to the vengeance of a 
holy and violated law. Death, temporal, spiritual 
and eternal is denounced, necessarily denounced, 
upon the transgressor. ** Cursed is every one that 
continueth not in all things written in the book of 
the law to do them." God's truth and justice, aye, 
and his goodness too, are pledged that sin should 
not pass with impunity, but that it should be 



OF THE GREAT SUPPER. 



357 



stamped with the seal of his infinite and everlasting 
reprobation. , The consequence, therefore, of your 
sins is, that the attributes of the Godhead are ar- 
rayed against you. 

But Jesus Christ offers to stand between you and 
the law of God. He offers to bear its penalty, to 
receive its stroke, and to drink and drain all its vials 
of bitterness. And to refuse Christ is simply to 
refuse pardon at the hand of God. It is coolly and 
deliberately to say that you do not desire to be on 
a friendly footing with the Sovereign of the uni- 
verse, that you have incurred his displeasure, but 
so far are you from repenting or relenting that 
you glory in your deeds. But there is more than 
a refusal of pardon. For every effect, there is a 
cause. You are chargeable with sinful acts because 
you have a disposition to act sinfully, just as a min- 
eral stream reveals a mineral fountain. It is out of 
the abundance of the heart that the mouth speak- 
eth, and the corrupt fruit reveals the tree to have 
been evil. As your conduct is unlike that of the 
saints and angels and cherubs and seraphs, so your 
nature is unlike theirs. Your heart, indeed, is so 
far removed from the frame and temper of heaven, 
that even if your sins were pardoned, you could not 
be received into, nor enjoy heaven, until your sinful 
disposition should be changed and sanctified. And 
in refusing Christ, you reject the only way in 
which it is possible to be freed from the filth and 
pollution and the utter depravity of your heart. To 
refuse to come to Christ now is simply to say that 
you do not choose to part with your heart of stone 



358 THE PARABLE 

and filth and vanity. It is to say there is to you a 
luxury in your evil heart of unbelief and of enmity 
to God, with which you are unwilling to part. It is 
to say, God may call into requisition the rich stores 
of goodness and wisdom and grace, in devising a 
plan for my salvation to a state of holiness and hap- 
piness. He may put upon himself all the arts of a 
bereaved father, to win his worthless son back to 
his yearning embrace — and heaven and earth and 
angels above and saints below may put forth the 
bustle and strenuousness of earnest exertion — pa- 
rents and pastors and saintly friends may pray and 
weep in secret places, for my pride. I thank them 
but little for their pains. I will not go to the feast 
of fat things. I will not receive the Savior of sin- 
ners. I will not part with my wicked heart. I will 
not receive remission at his hands, nor do I desire 
that he should make me holy. I will not receive 
from his hands a regenerated and sanctified spirit. 
I will go on frowardly in the way of my heart. Is 
this the answer you give to me and to the God that 
sent me to-day ? Must I, like the servants in the 
parable, return this as your answer? I must return 
some answer to Him that sent me and commanded 
me to bid you to the feast. Oh, friends, neighbors, 
acquaintances, what shall I answer? This is no 
poetic fiction, no creation of imagination. I must 
return some answer, at the day, when God will bring 
every work into judgment. Then, if not before, 
upon the peril of my soul, I must answer ! Most 
of you are my personal friends, my intimate and 
beloved companions, and I make my appeal to you. 



OF THE GREAT SUPPER. 



359 



What shall I answer? That you have coolly and 
deliberately refused his loving, gracious overtures ? 
Neighbors and friends, that is a hard answer. If 
you have no pity for yourselves, no love for God, 
have some for me ! As you love me, make me not 
the bearer of such tidings to your Father and mine ! 

We have spent happy hours together, and after all 
this, shall I in the hour of your extremest need, 
when every nerve thrills with agony, and your whole 
soul is dissolved in fear, shall I add to it, by the 
affirmation, that in such a day and in such a place, 
I did, with all the power and earnestness I had, urge 
upon you to accept the invitation to the wedding, 
and such and such was your answer? 

No ! no ! you all say, this is not what we would 
have you return as our answer. We do not utterly 
refuse Christ; we have not resolved 7iot to receive 
pardon and a new heart at his hands ; we only post- 
pone it for a little while ; we will accept the invita- 
tion by and by ; we only wish that our God would 
excuse us for a little while. Next fall, or next year, 
or before long, we will come to the feast; we will 
receive Christ; we will join his Church; we will pro- 
fess his name, and betake ourselves to prayer, and 
self-denial, and to a Christian walk. There are many , 
reasons why we should not come to the feast just 
now. I am so young yet, or my chattel property, 
or my real estate demands all my attention. I can 
read the expression of your countenance, and your 
imploring looks beseech me not to say to the Master 
that you refuse to come. If I understand you aright^ 
you only wish to be excused for the present, and 



36o "FEE PARABLE 

when your wedding is over, when your farms and 
your oxen are looked after, then you will come to 
the great feast that God has spread in his Church ; 
then you will receive the holy sacraments and the 
Christ that is made over to you in them; and then 
you will erect a family altar and a closet, and conse- 
crate yourselves and your houses to God. 

And is this after all the answer that, with a heavy 
heart, I must give to Him that sent me? Do you 
imagine that this will satisfy our King, our loving 
Lord? or that he will not be justly wroth when he 
receives it ? Do you imagine that you can hide the 
state of your hearts from his all-seeing eye by these 
fine phrases? Do you imagine that his piercing vis- 
ion will not be able to penetrate the gossamer of this 
disguise ? Do you think he will not be able to see, 
after all, what perhaps you have fondly overlooked, 
that the true reason of all this delay is that you have 
a secret, but strong aversion to him, and his services, 
and his salvation ? 

Yes, my friends, it is worthy of your notice that 
this hesitation, and this delay, and these excuses, 
spring from a heart that at the bottom loathes evan- 
gelical religion. If you really loved the feast and 
the Giver ; if you really desired that God should 
pardon all your sins, and receive you into his favor, 
and sanctify you in soul and body; I say, if you 
really loved and desired all these things, you would 
accept them now; you would not put it off until 
next fall; you would not put it off until next Sab. 
bath; you would not put it off until the end of the 
sermon — but this day, this hour, this moment, al- 



OF THE GREAT SUPPER. 



361 



most before my lips had finished the articulation of 
the invitation, your hearts would leap for joy, and 
your lips would be already pronouncing the sentence 
of acceptation. I repeat it, it is because you neither 
love the King, nor his cause, nor his feast, nor the 
guests, that you hesitate to go. It is because, at the 
bottom, you secretly loathe them all, that you wish 
to put it off till a future period. Can you wonder, 
then, if the King be angry ? Under the vail of this 
fine phraseology, you bid me return for your answer 
that you loathe the King and his goodness ; that you 
will not come while you can avoid it; that after 
a while, when you can no longer safely delay, then 
you will reluctantly come. Shall you, even in the 
finest and most delicate way imaginable, return such 
an answer to the King, and then imagine he will not 
be wroth? Is an insult the less keen and cutting, 
because spoken in a courtly style? Is the dagger 
less efficient because the robber that cuts your throat 
does it with the skill of a practical anatomist? And 
is this deep and bitter disgust at God and his good- 
ness the less offensive because expressed in the attic 
style of a plausible phraseology? 

Oh, my friends, believe it not. These plausibili- 
ties may deceive you ; they have deceived you ; they 
have hid away from the eye of your conscience the 
desperate aversion to religion that is rankling in the 
deep bottom of your souls. But do not imagine you 
can so deceive Him, whose eyes are as a flame of 
fire to search the heart and understand all its secrets. 
How stands the matter with you? Let us see. Here is 
a young man of many accomplishments, high-hearted 
31 



362 THE PARABLE 

and ambitious, but struggling with adversity. It is 
in my power and I offer him the most splendid posi- 
tion in the world, magnificent estate, great power, 
numerous friends and world-wide fame. Will he de- 
lay to accept the offer? Will he not close the cove- 
nant upon the instant? As with eager earnestness I 
press it on him, will he hesitate and struggle and 
hunt up pleas and pretexts for deferring? Far from 
it. He vv^ill consent at once, with beaming face, to 
his fortune. But here is another needing my kindly 
offices — a young, tender, timid, beautiful girl, brought 
up a sweet, innocent lamb, on the warm bosom of 
loving parents, who would never allow even the 
winds of heaven to visit her too roughly— afflicted 
by some painful disease. It is necessary that the 
amputating knife of the surgeon do its work in order 
to save her life. The most skillful of physicians, I 
tender my services and my skill at once, and for 
nothing. She knows the terrible necessity she is 
under; she knows the genefous offer I make her, 
and yet she hesitates, -trembles, and delays the eviL 
hour as long as possible. And why? Simply be- 
cause the dreaded operation is painful to her. 

And now, my friends, can not you read this loara- 
ble? Do you not see at once that you do not accept 
Christ and his salvation simply because you dread to 
be turned from your sins to God? Do you not stand 
convicted of loving sin and hating God ? 



OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 



363 



SERMON XXI. 
The Parable of the Prodigal jSon. 

LUKE XV. 11-32. 



On a certain occasion, when Jesus was preaching 
the gospel of the kingdom, the pubhcans drew near 
to hear him. He did not repel, but encouraged 
their advances. The Pharisees murmured at this, 
saying, **This man receiveth sinners and eateth 
with them." In this parable the Savior justifies 
himself, encourages the publicans and sinners to 
repent and be saved, and sets before the Pharisees 
a true, but odious, picture of their conduct, 

GENERAL EXPLICATION. 

The father in the parable represents God ; the 
father's house, the Church of God; and, the two 
sons, two classes connected with the Church. The 
elder son, moral and orderly, but of a legal, narrow 
and selfish turn, stands for the scribes and Pharisees, 
and the younger represents the publicans and sin- 
ners. Both these sons were for a time members of 
the Fnflier's house, the Church of God, and were 



364 ^^^ PARABLE 

federally the sons of God. They were both Jews, 
descendants of Abraham, and had been circumcised. 
Both had been planted, like fig-trees, in God's vine- 
yard, and had been cultivated by the vine-dressers. 
But now, in after4ife, there had come to be a wide 
difference between them. The one class, the scribes 
and Pharisees, still retained their place in the 
Church. The other class, the publicans and sin- 
ners, had long ago cast off all appearance of piety. 
They had even cut loose from the restraints of vir- 
tue and morality. They had gone far from their 
Father's house— from all the ordinances and insti- 
tutions of religion, and had wandered in the ways 
of rapacity and excess. For this they were dis- 
owned and despised by the Pharisee. They were 
separated not only from his communion, but from 
his sympathy. Nor were their more decent and 
orderly brethren willing ever again to receive them 
into favor or fellowship. 

Now the Savior, in this parable, tells the scribes 
and Pharisees that they did wrong in thus excluding 
their erring brethren from their sympathies, from 
opportunities of restoration, and from hopes of 
heaven. He assures them that if these poor, erring 
outcasts will only return, the great Father of the 
House, the Head of the Church, will heal their 
backslidings and receive them home to heaven. 

In this parable we have, first, the sinner's apos- 
tasy traced through its various stages on down to 
the extremest depths of infamy and misery, the his- 
tory of his return to God, and of his cordial and 
joyful reception. Then, second, we have the conduct 



OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 365 

of the scribes and Pharisees, in murmuring against 
the Savior for his grace to the publicans and sinners, 
dehneated in its true colors. 

I. The history of the profligate. ** A certain man 
had two sons," living with him in his house. The 
younger son, put forward here as the representative 
of publicans and sinners, had been, along with the 
elder, planted by the grace of God in the Church. 
The covenant had been not only with his fathers, 
but with him. In his early childhood he had re- 
ceived the sign of circumcision, the emblem of 
moral purity, and the seal of the righteousness of 
faith. To him had been given an early training in 
piety, abundant means of grace, the ordinances of 
the Church and the instructions of the priesthood- — 
a summer and harvest time of privilege and op- 
portunity. Had the publicans and sinners been 
heathen ; had they never been instructed in the 
knowledge of the law% of virtue, and of holiness; 
had the God above bestowed no special care and 
love upon them, their crime had been less aggra- 
vated. Alas, how many baptized youth of the 
Church, in every age, follow the footsteps of the 
Prodigal adown the dreary, dismal road of apostasy 
from the Church and the God of their fathers, but 
never follow the footsteps of his return ! How 
many, instead of improving their privileges and 
rejoicing in their mercies and stirring up their full 
souls to bless God for all his gracious benefits, do 
weary of the duties and the restraints and the ordi- 
dances of religion ; weary of the family prayers and 



366 THE PARABLE 

family piety of their Father's house ; weary of the 
the society of the spiritual and holy; weary of the 
teachings of the sanctuary, the monitions of the 
word and the restraints of conscience, and so take 
the course of the Prodigal for long wretched years 
together, and even follow it on down to hell ! 

But what an argument is here for the encourage- 
ment cf sinners to return to God — sinners of every 
class, and even the worst among them all ! For who 
will be rejected, when such an apostate as this Prod- 
igal is received ? — a man who had not only proved 
the utmost depths and utmost littleness of sin ; but 
who had done this notwithstanding all the advant- 
ages and all the mercies of his early years. What 
a picture is here drawn of the lovingkindness and 
the tender mercies of our God! A distinguished 
writer says : '* Would Christ not have deserved well 
of humanity, if he had done nothing else than de- 
liver this parable, or history, with its meaning ? I 
may boldly say. Where is there anything to be 
found like this parable ? What human teacher has 
placed the folly of human nature and the conse- 
quences of this folly in such clear and graphic 
colors before our eyes ; and in contrast therewith 
has given, of the long-suffering and compassion of 
God, so inexpressibly rich an exhibition, as is done 
in this discourse, which also has no parallel for its 
adaptation to all? Had Christ only come to the 
earth for the purpose of delivering this parable, on 
that account alone should all mortal and immortal 
beings concur in bending the knee before him, and 



OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 367 

confessing that he is a Son immeasurably superior 
to all others."* 

But let us proceed with the history. 

2. ^' And the younger of them said to his father, 
Father, g-ive me the portion of goods that falleth to 
iney Here you have the root and essence of all 
sin — the alienation of the heart from God, the ceas- 
ing to find our happiness and hope in our Father's 
house and our Father's love. In having God for 
his Father, and God's house (the Church) for his 
home, the younger son had everything. But when 
his heart turned away from God as his chief good, 
and placed its happiness in something else, and 
longed for it instead of for him, and desired its 
enjoyment separately from him, then he was already 
a sin-blinded and ruined man. 

For what is the essence and sum of all heart-sin 
but this, even a turning away of the heart from the 
Creator to the creature, and the worshiping and 
serving of it instead of him ? This was man's ruin 
at first. He placed his good not in God, but in 
something else. He hoped to derive more advant- 
age from *'the tree which was good for food, pleas- 
ant to the eyes, and to be desired to make one 
wise," than from keeping the divine law. And so 
it has ever been. Men wish, like the Prodigal, to 
enjoy all good things, and to enjoy them away from 
God. They have in them an evil heart that still 
wearies to depart and get away from the living God, 
and take his creatures and enjoy them as his source 
of their happiness. They say to gold, **Thou art 

* Lavater. 



368 ^^^ PARABLE 

my trust, and to the fine gold, thou art my hope,'' 
but they say not, ''Where is my Maker?" Oh! 
how many youth in all our congregations, baptized 
into the covenant, have a secret weariness of God 
and his law, and a secret and growing desire to be 
delivered from all piety and prayer, and from all the 
restraints and forms of religion, and are wishing but 
to have their portion of goods that they may go 
with them into some country far from God and live 
in sin, unmolested by the restraints which beset 
them now. ** They grow weary of living upon God 
and his fullness, and desire to take the ordering of 
their life into their own hands, believing that they 
can be a fountain of blessedness to themselves/'"^ 

3. ^^ And he divided unto them his living^ By this 
are meant the blessings of creation and providence 
which God bestows on the men who have departed 
from him, and which they spend on their lusts. All 
the blessings which the apostatizing child enjoys are 
from God — all health, strength, activity and beauty 
of body; all his powers, physical, intellectual and 
moral; wealth, intelligence and social position — 
these all are from God. He has created the man 
himself a free agent. He lays no restraint upon his 
will; he can be ungrateful if he chooses. At the 
very time when this recreant and ungrateful son is 
in his heart wearying of God and his service, that 
God, as a Father of infinite goodness, is watching 
over him to do him good. He ^ fences him with 
bones and sinews, covers him with flesh and skin, 
strings his young and brawny frame with strength, 

* Trench. 



OF THE PRODIGAL SON, 36^ 

and clothes his glossy brow with its rich and cluster- 
ing curls. It is He, the Father, from whose pres- 
ence he wishes to be gone, that jfills his young heart 
with the warm, wild gushings of its joyous emo- 
tions, and illumines his clear, eagle eye with the 
kindlings of a manly and immortal intelligence. It 
is He who has surrounded him with every worldly 
comfort, and with all the advantages which spring 
from social position, connection with the Church 
(the Father's house), and from association with the 
intelligent, the pure and the good. All this, and 
much more, is God doing for his ungrateful, apos- 
tatizing children, and if they will but love and obey 
him, he hath in store for them a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory. 

Surely there must be some horrible ingratitude and 
perverseness in him who finds the presence and 
service of such a Father and Friend a restraint upon 
his actions, and a marring of his joy, and who wishes 
to take all the precious gifts and benefits with which 
he has been loaded, exile himself from his Father's 
house and presence, and live to himself and for him- 
self, forgetful of his Father and his Father's house. 
If such treatment of an earthly parent is indicative 
of monstrous ingratitude, and betokens a rueful end, 
what must be his character who will thus demean 
himself toward God. 

Still our heavenly Father leaves men free ; and if 
they pervert and abuse their freedom, they must 
bear the consequences. You may, my dear chil- 
dren, take this course if you will ; you may seize 
all the choice blessings with which the munificent 



370 



THE PARABLE 



hand of your Father has loaded you down, and leave, 
your Father's house forever. God will not compel 
you to remain against your will. You may cast away 
from your heart every trace of religious feeling ; you 
may give the prayers your mother taught you to the 
winds; you may profane all your Sabbaths, despise 
every sanctuary, and utterly absent yourselves from 
the company of the godly ; you may blaspheme 
your baptism, and do despite to the Spirit of grace, 
and drink up scorning like water — and, seizing all 
the blessings bestowed by God upon you, you may 
take your journey afar into fields black and blastecjj. 
by sin, and riot and revel there in your sharme. All 
this, young man, you may do if you will. But let 
us see what the end of such a course will be. 

4. ^'And not many days after, the younger son gath- 
ered all together, and took his journey into a far coun- 
try'' And why does he go ? It is because he loves 
not his father. His father's presence is a restraint. 
He esteems the government of his father's house as 
slavery ; its society is a solitude to him ; he longs to 
be free. And now the apostasy of his heart is fol- 
lowed by the apostasy of his life. Dead to all home 
affections, with his deceived^ heart set on folly, he 
gathers his all together and departs into a far coun- 
try—goes out into a world of sin to become an un- 
disguised sinner — deliberately goes out from the 
heavenly away down into the earthly — from the high, 
and pure, and spiritual, deep into the grovehng, and 
polluted, and carnal. 

Nor is he content to depart; but he goes far away. 
He becomes no common sinner ; he casts away all 



OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 



371 



thoughts of God, and Christ, and heaven, of death, 
and judgment, and eternity ; he thrusts away all 
fear and neglects all forms of religion. And now at 
last he is free. He has got rid of prayers, and 
psalms, and Sabbaths, and sermons, and so he drinks 
up iniquity like water. '* Wickedness is sweet in his 
mouth, and he hides it under his tongue. He spares 
it and forsakes it not, but keeps it still within his 
mouth. '"^ He frequents the assemblies of the 
wicked. No heart has he for the little prayer-meet- 
ing; but he is at the ball, the theater, the horse-race, 
•the card-table, and the drinking-saloon. No relish 
has he for the beauties, and purities, and sublimities 
of the Bible; but he dreams whole nights over 
trashy fictions, and lewd and demoralizing books. 
Never now do prayers or praises steal from his 
tongue; but of libidinous songs, and low, lascivious 
dances, his lips and feet are never weary. Already 
is his voice hoarse with profanity, and his cheek 
flushed, and his breath hot with riotous excess. He 
walks the foremost and bravest in all the counsel, of 
the ungodly; he stands in the way of sinners; he 
sits in the seat of the scorner. Through the pride 
of his countenance he will not call on God. God is 
not in all his thoughts. He saith in his heart, *'I 
shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity.'* 
So now he is free. Now is he ''Lord of himself — 
that heritage of woe.'' Now he leads the life his 
soul longed for — a life of recklessness, and vanity, 
and pleasure — a life devoted to mirth and music, riot 
and revelry. Now the rosy hours reel round on 

^' Job XX. 12, 13. 



372 



THE PARABLE 



feathered feet. Surely he is happy! But no ! His 
heart is empty and wretched as ever. Amid all his 
excess there is hoUowness, and hunger, and feverish 
restlessness in his soul. His desires are hungry as 
the lank and gasping jaws of death; they enlarge 
themselves as the grave, and are not satisfied. 
Heart-sick he cries, ** Vanity of vanities, all is van- 
ity." The poor wretch, mayhap, has been as suc- 
cessful as Solomon in the pursuits of earth. He may 
have made great works — building houses, making 
gardens and orchards, and planting in them all kinds 
of fruits, gathering gold and silver, and all kinds of 
wealth, and withholding nothing from his eyes that 
they desired. But now behold, all is vanity and vex 
ation of spirit — all is madness and folly. * 

<* Pleasures are like poppies spread, 
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed ; 
Or like the snow-falls in the river, 
A moment white — then melt forever; 
Or like the borealis race, 
That flit ere you can point their place; 
Or like the rainbow's lovely form. 
Evanishing amid the storm" — 

And leaving the heart an empty, hungering and 
wretched thing. Such was the misguided Prodigal, 
even when spending all his substance on '* harlots 
and riotous living." 

5. ^^And when he had spent all^ there arose a mighty 
fajnine in that land ; and he began to be in want!^ 

The dream of pleasure does not last. Fortune 
fails ; or, if not, the powers of nature fail and leave 
the profligate utterly wretched. The brow grows 

'•*'" Ecclesiastes ii. 4-1 1. 



OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 373 

haggard; the cheek and body bloats; pains seize 
upon the physical organs ; the fetid breath comes 
reeking from rotting vitals; conscience tortures; 
remorse gnaws inwardly with ruthless fang; the rosy 
hours of joy have flown ; lovers and friends, that 
were kind before, stand at a distance. He awakes 
to find himself forsaken, hungry and wretched ; he 
has pursued the lovely, but illusive mirage of the 
desert ; he plucked the beautiful, but bitter apples 
of Sodom, and now he Is undone. His all is now 
gone ; he begins to be in want ; he now begins to 
perceive the hoUowness and vanity of those treach- 
erous illusions which he had chosen as his portion. 
The pleasures of sin can no more satisfy. For a 
time he may have imagined that he was doing well 
afar from God; but at last he finds himself miser- 
able — he feels the pressure of the '^mighty famine" 
that is upon him ; he has come to that point in prof- 
ligacy, where, though the fierce appetites and pas- 
sions of the miscreant are as fierce as ever, nature's 
failing powers are impotent to indulge them. '* There 
arose a mighty famine in that land ; and he began to 
be in want." What a picture of a man whose pow- 
ers have been exhausted by a long course of de- 
bauchery, but whose appetites are even more fierce 
and imperious than before. Miserable man ! What 
a famine, what a parching thirst, what a consuming 
hunger, what an exquisite misery is his — lorded over 
and goaded on, as he is, by appetites which his 
abused and worn-out powers are impotent to gratify ! 
This, this is a fire that consumes to destruction, and 
eats the marrow out of the bones. And to this the 



374 ^^^ PARABLE 

Prodigal comes. He who would be lord of himself; 
he who considered the wholesome and life-giving 
laws of his father's house a yoke of bondage; he 
who esteemed the easy yoke of Jesus heavy, and 
would not have God for a King to rule over him— 
he is now the wretched, tortured slave of his own 
lusts; he who would not yield his members instru- 
ments of righteousness, but madly resolved to yield 
them instruments of unrighteousness and sin, has 
now become the servant and the slave of sin, a 
master who feeds him on toads and adders, and 
drives and lashes him day and night, as with a 
scourge of scorpions. 

''A mighty famine arose in that land; and he he- 
gan to be in want." Oh, the physical torture and 
the soul-desolation of that profligate upon whom 
this famine has laid its ruthless and unrelenting 
hand ! No outward fortune or estate can shield from 
its grasp, or abate its violence. ''It sits down an 
unbidden guest at the rich man's table, and finds its 
way into the palaces of kings.'' And there, in the 
midst of his music and mirth, and by the side of his 
richly laden table, the famincrStruck Prodigal felt 
the gnawings of soul-hunger, and pined away in his 
misery. In .the midst of all his outward splendor, 
there was a canker-worm gnawing at his heart. That 
was a bitter wail, uttered by one of the proudest of 
England's nobles, amid all that rank, and genius, and 
fortune could give him — himself a Prodigal, when he 
exclaimed, and exclaimed too before he had run half 
of man's allotted time on earth : 



OF THE PRODIGAL SOK 375 

** My days are in the yellow leaf; 

The flowers and fruits of love are gone, 
The worm, the canker and the grief 
Are mine alone. 

*'The fire that on my bosom preys, 
Is lone as some volcanic isle; 
No torch is kindled at its blaze, 
A funeral pile." 

Or as the same bright, but blasted and bitter soul 
exclaims elsewhere : 

*'The serpent of the field, by art 

And spells, is vi^on from harming ; 
But that which coils around the heart, 

Oh, who hath power of charming ? 
It will not list to Wisdom's lore, 

Nor Music's voice can lure it ; 
But there it stings forevermore 

The soul that must endure it." 

6. But even these are not the lowest depths to 
which sin reduces the sinner. The Prodigal is 
doomed to a deeper degradation and a drearier deso- 
lation, '*He went and joined himself to a citizen 
of that country." How changed! He who would 
not brook the place of a son in his father's house is 
now content to occupy the menial position of a 
sycophantic parasite"^ in the house of a stranger. 
Formerly a son at home, now a servant in a strange 
land ; formerly the happy and respected heir of an 
opulent father, now an outcast, contemptible, base 
and wretched. But that is not all. There is a yet 

"* Parasite. — Such is the force of the word in the original, here 
rendered "joined." (We understand the word to mean simply to 
cleave to or associate with. See Acts v. 13 ; xvii. 34. Romans xii. 9. 
The context, however, shows that the Prodigal occupied a menial 
and despicable position.) — Ed. 



376 "THE PARABLE 

bitterer ingredient in his cup of misery. He is 
'' se7tt to the fields to feed swineT Any other employ- 
ment would have been less humiliating. He, a Jew, 
sent to feed swine — animals held as unclean, and de- 
testable, and abominable by every Jew! Appalling 
fall! He has at last become a pimp and bawd — a 
creature whose business it is to minister to the in- 
famous appetites of the unclean and filthy — to pre- 
side over the lowest establishments of infamy known 
in the annals of crime. And still his insatiable ap- 
petite goads him by day and night, insomuch that he 
would fain satisfy it with the husks eaten by the 
swine — he would join in the wild and hellish revels 
of that infamous brothel over which, amid its reek- 
ing fumes, his master, the devil, has sent him to 
preside. 

And even there is he the lowest of the low. None 
so drunken and bloated and profane and fierce and 
delirious as he. Even his wretched associates shrink 
from his brutal embrace. ''He would fain have 
filled his belly " (sated his beastly and unappeasable 
desires) *'with the husks the swine did eat; and no 
man gave unto him." Again, I say, appalling fall! 
For the baptized member of the Church to wander 
from his Father's house — go far away into the world 
that lieth in sin, and there sink down, down, down, 
to the condition of a swine-herd, having run all the 
rounds of infamy himself, until exhausted nature can 
bear no more — to become a bawd to the rank and 
reeking lusts of the lowest and most loathsome of 
men, and to sink so far below them all that none 
among them can tolerate his brutal companionship, 



OF THE PRODIGAL SON, 



377 



but all forsake him and leave him to the unrelieved 
and unpitied misery of passions and appetites as 
fierce and hot as hell! Surely this is the extreme 
of human misery on earth. Surely there is no 
deeper depths of misery on this side of the outer 
darkness and the lake of fire. 

And now be assured, my hearers, and especially 
ye dear youth, lambs of my flock, sealed up into 
the Church of God, by these hands, at the bap- 
tismal font, be assured I draw no fancy sketch. In 
all our cities there are just such baptized, wretched 
prodigals as are painted in our parable. Gifted 
young men and lovely girls, who have gone away 
from their father and from his goodly house, into a 
far country and there squandered their all, and, 
rushing from one depth of misery and shame into 
another, do now occupy the condition of the swine- 
herd — soon to be cast away and forsaken by all and 
left unrelieved and unpitied to perish by the most 
terrible of deaths. Some of you may even now be 
beginning to grow weary of the restraints of religion 
and the society of the godly, and may be casting a 
wishful eye upon the companies and the delights of 
sinners. Well, go and cast in your lot with them if 
you will. The country, that lies afar, decks itself with 
the harlot's robe and lights its cheek with a harlot's 
smile, and says, ** Stolen waters are sweet, and bread 
eaten in secret is pleasant." Well, if your heart is 
set upon it, go ! Go, and love them that hate the 
Lord. Go, and squander all your youthful gifts and 
powers. These revelers will welcome you while 
your substance lasts. While beauty or wit or wealth 
32 



378 



THE PARABLE 



holds out, they will burn daily incense upon your 
altar. But, remember ! When all is gone — when 
passion goads you on — when impotent nature flags, 

exhausted under the lash of scorpions when 

bloated and blasted, a weary, worn and wretched 
thing, you sink down to die — then those very com- 
panions will abhor and forsake you ; and unless God 
pity you or Christians compassionate you, you will, 
without a friend in the universe, perish forever. 
Such, unless a late repentance had prevented it, had 
been the end of the Prodigal Son. 

7. Wretched condition! Well does the happy 
and rejoicing father, on his son's return, speak of 
him as one that was **dead'' and 'Most.'' He had 
been dead to virtue and holiness — dead to God and 
heaven — dead to peace and happiness — dead to 
every affection and desire that ought to inspire an 
immortal soul. 

And well does the parable represent the Prodigal 
in his sins as delirious and mad, and his repentance 
as a returning to his right mind. For surely a man 
must ht mad to make the Prodigal's choice. For 
an immortal soul, with all its wondrous, deathless 
powers, with all its mighty capacities and suscepti- 
bilities, with all its yearnings after the high and 
good and glorious and eternal — for such a soul as 
this, born of pious parents, baptized and bred up in 
the Church of the living God, and an heir of all its 
precious heritage of privilege and of promise ; 
watched over by parents and pastors and holy 
angels; with the glorious and blessed Jesus offer- 
ing to befriend and watch over him through life, to 



OF THE PRODIGAL SON, 



379 



save him in death, and to make him blessed, glori- 
ous and immortal in the bright and beatific halls of 
heaven — a peer and prince of the angels, nearer the 
throne and louder in song than they; and all this 
through the mighty roll of eternal ages — I say, for 
such a soul to turn away from such a heritage, to 
wander far away from that Father's house and heart; 
to barter all its ineffable possessions and prospects 
for a mess of pottage ; to exchange them all for the 
pleasures of sin for a season — surely such a soul is 
mad. Surely reason is dethroned and conscience 
dead. Surely devilish and deadly delirium has 
seized upon its faculties and sent it forth a wan- 
dering star to which the mist of darkness is reserved 
for ever. 

But, no. Deplorable as has been his fall, hor- 
rible as have been his crimes, odious as is his char- 
acter ; unworthy as he is of the least mercy from 
the hand of God, his .case is not yet hopeless. If 
the wretched outcast — the paramour and the pimp 
of harlots and sinners — will but in his misery con- 
sider his ways and return to God, there is room for 
him still in his Father's house and heart. If he will 
but return, there will be the glad and eager forth- 
going of that Father to meet him, and embrace him, 
and welcome him back ; and the robe, the ring and 
the fatted calf, and music and dancing, are all in 
readiness for his reception. 

II. Therefore let us trace his repentance, his 
return and his reception home.* 

*The remaining part of the discourse is given in the author's 
MSS. only in the form of a skeleton. — Ed. 



380 THE PARABLE 

1. He is brought to know and feel his misery and 
its cause. 

2. He resolves to forsake all his sins and return 
to God. 

3. He has faith in God, and in his saving love and 
grace. 

4. He confesses his sin. N. B. — Ingenuous con- 
fession a necessary mark and fruit of saving repent- 
ance. 

5. He casts himself entirely upon the merits and 
grace of Christ, and on the truth of God's word. 
He casts himself on the mercy of God in trust and 
hope. 

6. He submits entirely to God — is willing to be 
and to do anything. 

7. He puts all these pious thoughts and purposes 
in practice, without delay — instantly. 

(i.) He does not wait to dally with sin. 

(2.) He does not wait to make himself better, 
but comes as he is. 

How can you free yourself from guilt, or from de- 
pravity, or from their consequences, but by coming 
to Christ? 

8. He was instantly received, as he was, while 
yet a great way off. 

(i.) His first efforts were graciously met and 
seconded. The gracious Father had eyes and bow- 
els and feet and hands and lips of love. 

(2.) He is fully pardoned and restored. 

(3.) He is invested with Christ's righteousness — 
the robe. 



OF THE PRODIGAL SON. 



381 



(4. ) He IS renewed by the Holy Spirit — the ring. 

(5.) He is filled with joy and peace — the fatted 
calf. 

(6.) There is joy at his repentance — they began 
to be merry. 



382 THE PARABLE 



SERMON XXII. 

The Parable of the Unjust 
Steward. 

LUKE XVI. 1-9. 



This is a most difficult parable, and various inter- 
pretations have been given of it. Some of these 
interpretations it may be proper briefly to state. 

(i.) That it represents Christ himself — strange 



view 
view 

(3 
(4 



) That it represents Judas and Pilate — absurd 



) Represents publican and rich man — futile. 
) Represents penitent sinners devising repent- 
ance — untenable. 

(5.) Teaches to make friends among the rich and 
great — mean view. 

I will not spend time in considering these interpre- 
tations in detail— this would be tedious. I will not 
spend time in refuting them — this would fatigue both 
you and me. Nor will I parade laborious research 
and critical acumen in solving difficulties — I have 



OF THE UNJUST STEWARD. 383 

always avoided this. But I will go straight on with 
what I believe, upon a protracted examination, to be 
the true exposition. 

1. The key-word of the parable is found in the 
eighth verse: **And the lord commended the unjust 
steward, because he had done wisely; for the chil- 
dren of this world are in their generation wiser than 
the children of light.'* 

2. The object had in view in the framing of the 
parable is stated in the ninth verse: **Make to 
yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteous- 
ness." The thing commanded to be done is *^to 
make friends.'' 

3. The manner of doing this is stated in verses 
one to eight. 

4. Recommended the ** wisdom" or *' prudence" 
of the unjust steward. The word should be prudence, 
not wisdom. Wisdom is ever connected with moral 
goodness — cunning with the low and the base. But 
prudence, providence or forethought, is the true and 
proper force of the word. And thus it is repeatedly 
used in the Septuagint version of the Scriptures. 

5. Observe, he did not commend the man's dis- 
honesty, but his prudence. An action or a character 
has often two sides to it, viewed on one of which it 
is commendable, and on the other is to be repro- 
bated. A bold, bad man may, in the performance 
of wicked acts, exhibit admirable courage and energy. 
The devil has his martyrs, who endure great labor 
and make great sacrifices in his cause. It is right 
to point out their conduct to Christians, in order to 
stimulate them to greater diligence. Such argu- 



384 ^^^ PARABLE 

ments are commonly used when national, political or 
sectarian strifes run high. We may say to the free 
men of the North, See how slavery seeks to spread 
into the territories, and shall you be idle?* We may 
say, See how Rome seeks to proselyte, and shall 
you do nothing? See how other denominations 
establish literary institutions, and shall you remain 
supine? In all these instances, who does not see 
that we .are not praising the cause, but the conduct 
of our adversaries? How often have I used the 
same line of argument in the pulpit? How often 
have I singled out some gay young lady of pleasure 
and fashion, and bid you notice with what pains she 
adorned her person in order to please and attract in 
the drawing-room ; and from thence argued how dili- 
gent you ought to be in arraying yourselves for the 
splendid assemblies of heaven? How often have I 
taken men's diligence in acquiring temporal wealth 
as an argument to show how diligent you should be 
in acquiring the true riches ! And now this is the 
very thing done by the parable under consideration. 
It is true indeed that Julian, and after him very 
many, even down to our own ^times, have represented 
this parable a^ commending the immorality of the 
unjust steward. But it is as plain as the sun in the 
heavens that it is only his prudence, his provident 
forecast for the future, which is commended. 

6. Come we then to notice his prudence — the 
thing here so highly commended. Prudence implies 
caution in deliberating and consulting in regard to 
the most suitable means to accomplish valuable pur- 

* This sermon was prepared in 1854. — Ed. 



OF THE UNJUST STEWARD. 



385 



poses, and sagacity in discerning" and selecting them. 
It also implies promptness and resolution in carry- 
ing our plans into execution. All this was most 
beautifully exemplified in the conduct of the unjust 
steward. The thing to be secured was worldly com- 
petence and comfort, and it was not possible for him 
to have planned or acted more wisely. 

(i.) He was in a critical condition, and he fully 
understood and realized it. He looked his affairs 
fairly and squarely in the face, with an unblinking 
eye. If every business man, and every business 
man's family, would do so, it would save many a re- 
spectable family from bankruptcy and ruin. And if 
every fallen, lost soul would do so, it would save 
many a one from hell. But the subject is to many 
an unpleasant one, and so they dismiss it. 

(2.) He immediately devises the most suitable 
measures to meet his case and gain his end. He 
could not dig and was ashamed to beg; hence he 
adopted the preferable arrangement of laying his 
friends under obligations to himself by signal acts 
of kindness. 

(3.) He instantly set about the prompt and vigor- 
ous execution of his plan. 

7. The prudence of the steward, both in counsel 
and conduct, was perfect and successful. And now 
Christians should imitate it. 

(i.) For hke him we are stewards. We are 
stewards of all we possess — of all our gifts and 
graces; of all our intellectual faculties, and learn- 
ing, and eloquence; of all our children and house- 
holds; of all our wealth; of all we are or have. 
33 



386 THE PARABLE 

(2.) Like him, we are to g'ive an account for alL 
(3.) Like him, we have it in our power so to use 
these things as to make them conducive to our eter- 
nal welfare. Verse nine: '*Make to yourselves 
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness." The 
mammon of unrighteousness means the false, unreal 
mammon. The original word sometimes has this 
force, and this is its force here, as is evident from 
the eleventh verse, where it is contrasted with the 
true riches. Still it may be called the unrighteous 
mammon, because it is hardly possible to get and 
retain great worldly wealth without contracting more 
or less guilt along with it. Or it may be so called 
because of a deeper sense in the word than any yet 
mentioned, even because of some inherent criminal- 
ity growing out of the very nature and existence of 
property. '*For in a perfect state of society- — in a 
realized kingdom upon earth — there would be no 
such thing as property belonging to one man more 
than another. In the moment of the Church's first 
love, when that kingdom was for an instant realized, 
' all that believed were together and had all things 
common ; ' and this existence .of property has ever 
been so strongly felt as a witness for the selfishness 
of man, that in all ideas of a perfect commonwealth 
— which, if perfect, must of course be a Church as 
well as a State — from Plato's down to the Socialists', 
this of the communion of goods has made a neces- 
sary condition. So that though the possessor of the 
wealth, or those who transmitted it to him, may have 
fairly acquired it, yet it is not less this ' unriglUeoiis' 
mammon, witnessing in its very existence as one 



OF THE UNJUST STEWARD. 387 

man's and not every man's, for the corruption, and 
fall, and selfishness of man— for the absence of that 
highest love, which would have made each man feel 
that whatever was his was alao every one's beside, 
and rendered it impossible that a mine and thine 
should ever have existed. With all this, we must 
not of course forget that the attempt prematurely to 
realize this or any other little fragment or corner of 
the kingdom of God, apart fro'm the rest— the cor- 
ruption and evil of man*s heart remaining unre- 
moved, and being either overlooked or denied — has 
ever been one of the most fruitful sources of the 
worst mischiefs in the world. '"^ 

Having then seen what is meant by the mammon 
of unrighteousness, viz: our possessions, whatever 
they may be, but especially our property — we return 
to the proposition that *'it is in our power so to use 
these things as to make them tell upon our everlast- 
ing destinies;"' so to use them that when we fail — 
when we die— -they shall receive us into everlasting 
habitations. Verse nine. —Not that it can prepare 
those habitations for us, or take us thither— only the 
righteousness and mediation of Christ can do that. 
But the habitations being prepared, and we being 
removed thither, our state and standing there will 
be mightily affected by the manner in which we shall 
have acquitted ourselves of our stewardship here, 
We may now so use the resources put by Providence 
into our hand as to make friends., and joys that Avill 
welcome us into heaven. Those Christians, to 
whom and for whom we do good here, will meet us 

*5» Trench. 



388 ^^^ PARABLE 

at heaven's gates and welcome us home. With warm 
hearts they will remember our kind offices in their 
behalf, and cling to us with eternal gratitude and 
perfect love — a love of peculiar intensity and beauty 
— a love which even in that perfect state, where all 
is love, shall, nevertheless, throb with a deeper gush, 
and beam with a brighter eye, at the mention of our 
name. And if human friendships are sweet to 
human souls even here on earth, where all love is so 
imperfect, and mingled with so much alloy, what 
must be the surpassing and transporting sweetness 
of this love in heaven? If a philanthropist is suffi- 
ciently repaid by the grateful tears and murmured 
blessings of those whom he has relieved on earth, 
what shall he enjoy as he bathes in the perennial 
outgush of those grateful hearts in heaven, who are 
indebted to him as the human instrument of their 
salvation ? 

Never a good deed have you done to a child of 
God ; never a kind word spoken to him or for him ; 
never a sincere prayer breathed in his^ behalf at a 
throne of grace ; never a single sacrifice of time, or 
money, or toil, or care, made in his behalf, which 
will be forgotten in heaven by those for whom these 
services were performed here on earth. Whether 
they are grateful here or not, they will be grateful 
there ; whether they love you or hate you, bless you 
or curse you now, be sure they will give earnest 
thanks to you then. At present they may not know 
to whom they are indebted, and may be ignorant of 
the favors conferred, and of how much they cost the 
giver; here they may mistake your character, mis- 



OF THE UNJUST STEWARD. 38^ 

judge your motives, dislike your services, and return 
you hatred for your love. But patience. Christian 
philanthropist, all this will speedily pass away, like 
the morning mist. Not a good thought, word or 
deed of yours toward the pious, from first to last, 
shall ever be forgotten, or coldly remembered by 
them in the eternal world. They shall be written 
as with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond, 
and graven upon glad and grateful hearts forever. 
Patience and perseverance. Christian, in your works 
of faith and labors of love to all men, but especially 
toward the household of faith. They will remember 
and requite you for it all, one day soon. Go on! 
Go on! thou man of God, in your self-denying and 
unrequited toil. *'To him that soweth righteous- 
ness shall be a sure reward."^ Go on! Go on! You 
are making friends, everlasting friends, with this 
mammon of unrighteousness. Not a single Bible or 
missionary you send to the benighted heathen ; not 
a single tract or preacher you send to the neglected 
among our home population ; not a single child or 
sinner you gather into the Sabbath-school, prayer- 
meeting or church, and become instrumental in con- 
verting and saving, but secures another and another 
friend, who will receive you with songs of joy, and 
hearts of love, and shouts of welcome into everlast- 
ing habitations in heaven. The gifts you bestow on 
Christ's poor ones now, especially if you have to 
deny yourselves in order to be able to bestow them ; 
the weary midnight hours you spend in waiting 
around their sick-beds, ministering to them in their 

''^ Proverbs xi. 18, 



390 



THE PARABLE 



hour of need; all your consolatory visits to their 
houses of mourning; all your words of encourage- 
ment in their hour of gloom, and your words of 
counsel in their hour of perplexity — all these, and 
all other words and deeds of mercy, charity and love 
Avill be remembered then. Can they be forgotten 
by a sinless soul, whose memory is perfect ? Can 
they be remembered coldly by a sinless soul, whose 
love and gratitude are perfect? Has not the imper- 
fect gratitude of imperfect men, even in this life, 
often repaid the Christian philanthropist for great 
and painful sacrifices? Have not the blessings and 
grateful tears of widows and orphans, that were ready 
to perish, often filled the souls of good men, even in 
this life, with a serene and lofty joy that earth's con- 
querors and emperors might envy? What then, oh 
tell nie, what then shall be the perfect joys of heaven? 
For it is not possible that these favors shall be for- 
gotten in heaven ; and, being remembered, it is not 
possible that they shall not make the pulse of the 
happy recipient throb with vigorous gratitude and 
love toward their proper object. Nor is it possible 
that the once toil-worn, but now glory-crowned phi- 
lanthropist, should receive unmoved these pure, deep 
outgushings of warm, grateful, and unchanging hearts. 
Nor can it be that we err. Christians, in present- 
ing this as a motive to sustain and quicken your res- 
olutions and your efforts in every good work. It is 
an inducement which God himself holds out to en- 
courage and stimulate you. He has told you that 
'*to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure 
reward ; that he, who, in bearing precious seed, 



OF THE UNJUST STEWARD, 



391 



goetli forth with tears, shall enjoy a harvest-time of 
gladness; that he, who sovveth sparingly, shall reap 
also sparingly; and that they, who turn many to 
righteousness, shall shine as the stars forever and 
ever.'"^ And some of the greatest and holiest of 
men, in the midst of the severest trials and sorrows, 
have found their resolution and their energies sus- 
tained and quickened by this very consideration. It 
was so with Paul. Hungry and thirsty, cold and 
weary, slandered, hated and reviled, exiled, hunted 
and persecuted, he still persisted in his heavenly 
work of hunting up souls and wanning them to glory. 
It was one of the secrets of his indomitable energy 
and deatriless perseverance that every soul he saved 
would be to him a garland of glory. **For what" 
(says he) '^ is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? 
Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus 
Christ at his coming? For ye are our glory and 
joy."f Why did he take so deep an interest in the 
perseverance and final salvation of his converts? 
Why, when storms and trials rose around them, and 
threatened to overpower their faith and patience, did 
he brave everything, and fly from city to city, and 
from country to country, like an omnipresent agency, 
that he might reanimate and rally their faltering 
spirits? I say what sustained him amid these almost 
superhuman labors and sufferings, except that glo- 
rious hope to which he himself alludes in one of his 
most touching appeals: *' Therefore, my brethren, 
dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, 



* Proverbs xi. 18. Psalm cxxvi. 6. 2 Corinthians ix. 6. Daniel 
xii. 3. t i Thessalonians ii. 19. 



202 ^^^^' PARABLE 

SO stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved."* 
Whatever were the mighty motives, the glorious 
hopes with which he sustained tliem ; a chief motive, 
which enabled liiin to do so much and endure so 
much in their behalf, was that they were his '* joy 
and crown." 

It is sweet to a gray haired sire, who has devoted 
his hours and his energies to the education of his 
children, and to making a comfortable provision for 
them, to be surrounded by those children in the 
evening of his days ; to see them honor their educa- 
tion by a virtuous and honorable life, and to read in 
their every look and act that they gratefully revere 
and honor the sire who has loved them so purely 
and so well. It is sweet to the patriot, who has 
stood in the gap, in the hour of his country's dan- 
ger, who has served her faithfully through many 
dangers, and with many sacrifices, to find when his 
work is done, and his life is drawing to a close, that 
he has a place in the hearts of his countrymen ; that 
they revere his person, love his name and" cherish 
his memory. What then shall be the gratitude of 
the child, and what the joys of the Christian parent, 
who has taught and trained his child for heaven, 
when he meets it there? And what the joys of such 
men as Paul, and , Augustine, and Luther, and Cal- 
vin, and Knox, and Whitefield, and Chalmers, and 
Payson, and Judson, when the songs of unnumbered 
multitudes, like a shout of nations, breaks forth 
from the opening gates of heaven, to hail their 
advent thither — these being the songs of a grateful 

* Philippians iv. i. 



OF THE UNJUST STEWARD. 



393 



love that shall never change, or ebb, or die — a love 
that shall throb on unconsumed and immortal, 
through the endless years of heaven? And though 
we may not all be permitted to receive so vast hon- 
ors and joys, yet what shall be the joy of that poor 
man, who, as he cHmbs those lofty steeps and enters 
those pearly gates, is met by some shining spirit, 
once a debased Hindoo or Hottentot, and is informed 
that it was the Bible sent by him that guided the 
feet of this sinner to the hills of heaven ? Or what 
shall be the joy of that young girl, or aged man, 
who is so soon to meet in glory some little child 
gathered by them into the Sabbath-school, and con- 
verted and saved ? 

It is thus that of the mammon of unrighteousness 
you make friends who shall hereafter receive you 
into everlasting habitations. Nor is this all. You 
not only make friends of those whom you are instru- 
mental in saving, but you deepen also the friendship 
and love of the angels, who are your invisible co- 
laborers in this great work. Yea, more — you deepen 
and endear your friendship with God. He will 
ever shower sweeter smiles upon you from his loving 
countenance; ever dart upon you brighter beams 
from his love-lit eyes; ever wreathe your brow with 
lovelier laurels; fill your cup with a sweeter draught; 
clothe your form with more heavenly beauty; fill 
your spirit with a sweeter rapture ; and set your 
throne more toweringly aloft, for having thus ac- 
quitted yourself of your stewardship. In Matthew 
XXV. 34-40 we have the clew to this parable, and the 
proof of what we have uttered. There are many 



394 ^'^^ PARABLE 

other texts of kindred character. Who does not 
remember the declaration that ''he that receiveth a 
prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a 
prophet's reward?"^ Who, among all those who 
employ themselves and their substance in the service 
of the Master, has forgotten the declaration: ''For 
God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor 
of love, which ye have showed toward his name, in 
that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minis- 
ter? "f Or who, with the heart of a Christian, can 
forget the Scripture : "To do good and to commu- 
nicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well 
pleased? "J To whom does not the parable of the 
pounds at once recur? Luke xix. 12-27. 

But, above all, let it be borne in mind that a faith- 
ful discharge of our stewardship on earth is neces- 
sary, not only to a high degree of glory, but to the 
enjoyment of glory at all. An unfaithful steward — 
one who wastes his Master's goods, or, what is the 
same thing, one who embezzles them to his own use, 
regardless of the wishes and the interests of the 
Master — can not be saved at all. Mark well the 
tenth and eleventh verses : ' ' He that is faithful in 
that which is least is faithful also in much: and he 
that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If 
therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous 
mammon, who will commit to your trust the true 
riches?'* 



'^- Matthew x. 41. t Hebrews vi. 10. { Hebrews xiii. 16. 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 3^5 



SERMON XXIII. 



The Parable of the Rich Man 
AND La: 



lZARUS. 

LUKE XVL 19-31. 
{First Sermon.) 



There has been much discussion whether this is 
a parable or a description. I suppose it a parable ; 
but you will recollect that in our previous dis- 
courses a parable has been shown to differ from a 
fable in this, that its imagery either had, or, in the 
opinion of those to whom it was addressed, was 
supposed to have, a real existence. Thus it is in 
the parables w^e have already passed over. Instances 
may be found in every one — the Tares, the Sower, 
the Supper, the Vineyard, the Rich Fool, the Lost 
Sheep, etc. I have said a parable has, or, in the 
estimation of those to whom it is addressed, may 
have, an existence. This remark is important, for 
two reasons, in the interpretation of the parable 
under consideration, especially in that part of it, in 
which departed souls are represented as having con- 



396 



THE PARABLE 



versation with each other in different states. It was 
the opinion of the ancients, that Hades, the place 
of departed spirits, was separated into two apart- 
ments — one for the abode of the good, the other 
for the bad — and that these apartments were sepa- 
rated from each other by a ** chasm, '' utterly im- 
passable, to be sure, but at the same time so narrow, 
that with their enlarged powers, they could see and 
converse with each other. 

Now, this opinion is no doubt partly true ; per- 
haps entirely so. But it is manifest that, in the 
parable, it is not designed to be either affirmed or 
denied. The Savior had been speaking of the pro- 
priety of ^' using the things of this world, as not 
abusing them,'' and although diverted for a while 
from this subject, he here returns to it, and the 
more to enforce the lesson he had taught, the more 
to create and confirm the impression that we ought 
to make all things subordinate to our eternal inter- 
ests, by using them to promote the glory of God, 
he brings forward this parable. One remark more : 
parables are not designed to teach doctrines, but to 
illustrate them. There are several truths not here 
formally and for the first time made known, but 
which are assumed as undoubted verities. 

It will be the business of these discourses to 
notice these and dwell upon them, so as to prove 
them where they are in doubt, and, when established, 
to derive those practical lessons from them which 
naturally follow. 

One of the most difficult problems presented to 
the human mind is to reconcile the present state of 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 



Z97 



things with the existence of a holy, wise, good and 
powerful First Cause, especially to reconcile his 
being and providences with the present condition 
of man. And if we altogether pass by that most 
mysterious of all problems, the origin and entrance 
of Evil among men, still there remains another, 
which to the naked eye of human intellect is just as 
inscrutable and just as mysterious. How shall we 
reconcile the many miseries of the righteous and 
the sometimes many pleasures of the wicked, with 
the doctrine of the presence and the presidency of 
a Being, who is almighty, just and good? The ine- 
qualities in this life are manifestly very great, and 
this, too, irrespective of the character and conduct 
of men. You will find of one, that like the rich 
man of our text, he is born a prince in the earth ; a 
man of vast mental and physical powers and accom- 
plishments ; whose every bone, nerve and ligament 
are permeated and steeped in a silvery flood of life 
and health and animation ; whose every sense drinks 
gladly and greedily in the melodies. and the sweets 
and the beauties and the grandeur of nature, as they 
flow unto him in every direction. The landscape 
spreads its blooming meads and waving fields; it 
lifts up its dim and smoky hills ; it rears aloft its 
hoary cloud-girdled mountains ; it purls its gently 
flowing streams, and winds its majestic rivers, as if 
on purpose to fill his eye with the transporting, the 
beautiful, the sublime. The air hurries away from 
the blooming beds of fragrant flowers, that it may 
bathe his pulsing temples, and pour at once upon 
his enchanted ear the melodies of nature. The earth 



398 '^HE PARABLE 

and the sea and the air heap their treasures upon 
him. The north gives up its furs, the south its 
fi'uits, the hills give up their vines, and the vales 
their corn; every country and every clime seem to 
-emulate each other in bestowing their luxuries upon 
him. And to these many sources of sensitive enjoy- 
ment is superadded a mind of the highest and hap- 
piest order, with which to range over the vast 
domains of fancy and of fact, and cull the flowers 
and pluck the fruits of intellectual delight, which 
bloom and ripen everywhere. 

Such is this man, and far more ; while another 
born at his very door is, in physical and intellectual 
condition, the very reverse of all this. He is an 
heir of poverty, sickness and pain. He is a man 
against whom the Almighty seems to have raised 
his hand and leveled his arrows, until in the bitter- 
ness and wretchedness of his soul, he cries out, 
'^ My soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than 
my life ! I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me 
alone, for my days are vanity. . . . Wherefore is 
light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the 
bitter in soul ; which long foj death, but it cometh 
not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures; 
which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they 
can find the grave ?'"^ 

Wide, my hearers, is the difference between the 
types we have held up for your consideration ! 
Widely has God made them to differ. These are 
the Lord's doings, and they are wondrous in our 
eyes. These are the ''Rich Man" and the *'Laza- 

■-'''Jobvii. 15, 16; lii. 20-22. 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. o^gg 

rus" of our text. The poor Lazarus is a saint, a 
man who hates sin and loves hohness and fears God. 
A man amiable in disposition, mild ancl gentle; 
humble in his manners and unimpeachable in his 
whole deportment. Whilst the other, the ''Rich 
Man" of the parable, is sensual and selfish; proud 
and arrogant; vain and impious. 

Now the problem, which unassisted reason in the 
state of its best development has been unable to 
solve, is simply this: How can it consist with the 
righteous government of a holy and Almighty God, 
to permit his holy, hidden ones thus to pine, to lan- 
guish and suffer, while the rebellious contemners of 
his authority, the monstrous oppressors of their 
race, are not unfrequently permitted to pass their 
time away in the midst of unruffled prosperity? The 
difficulties of this question have led some to deny 
his providence and others to doubt his existence. 
This was the thing which so sorely puzzled Job, the 
patient Job, in the midst of his afflictions. ''Where- 
fore" (says he) "do the wicked live, become old, 
yea, are mighty in power ?"^ This is that which so 
puzzled the inspired Asaph, that he well-nigh hesi- 
tated, whether it was either his interest or his duty 
to remain any longer the servant of the Most HighPf 
He was ready to doubt the existence of a Being 
whose power upheld and whose providence con- 
trolled the affairs of men. 

Now we know of no better way in which satis- 
factorily to disperse the gloom of thick darkness, 
which folds its heavy mantle over the whole of this 

"''■ Job xxi. 7, t Psalm Ixxiii. 1-16, 



400 



THE PARABLE 



subject, than to shed the b'ght from above upon it. 
Let the rays of the Sun of righteousness shine upon 
it, and instantly all is clear. A future state of 
existence shall rectify the seeming disorders of this. 
Of the one it shall be said, '*Thou in thy lifetime 
receivedst thy good things. Thou didst receive a 
full reward and more, for all the materially good 
things done by thee, whilst for a time the hand of 
vengeance stayed itself." 

Of the other it will be said, *'Thou in thy life- 
time didst receive a fatherly infliction for thy trans- 
gressions, whilst, for a time, thy works and thy 
patience and thy charity seemed to be overlooked. 
But this dispensation was not meant to be final, and 
hence thou art comforted while he is tormented." 

Accordingly, a principal assumption in the par- 
able is this : ''The soul is immortal, and in a future 
state the good shall be comforted and the wicked 
tormented." This proposition might properly be 
divided into two, of which the one should assert the 
immortality of the soul, and the other the rewards 
and punishment of the future state. 

Let us then briefly confirm the truth in our text — 
the immortality of the soul, a theme of grand and 
thrilling interest — a proposition involving conse- 
quences of momentous and endless importance to 
every individual of our race. ''To be or not to be?" 
To travel in a sunny, flowery path, which brighten- 
ing in the indescribable enchantment of its beauty, 
leads the whole of the endless prospective ; or to 
struggle through a narrow, memphitic, tortuous 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS, 40 1 

passage shortly and suddenly ending in a darkness 
which is eternal. 

These are some of the consequences which the 
question brings pregnant before us — a question, 
which, as before stated, is too high for our limited 
comprehension. Shall our being continue or be 
extinct? Shall these longings for immortality, for 
a higher and happier state of being, be gratified, or 
are they doomed to everlasting disappointment? 
The almost universal persuasion of mankind, that 
they in this life only entered the vestibule of exist- 
ence, and that death is only a door- way leading into 
the temple of being and life — is it well-founded, or 
is it only a pleasing, splendid delusion? These 
mental and moral faculties of ours, endowed, we 
fondly think, for endless advance, for everlasting 
elevation — are they destined to make never-ending 
improvement, or are they, after a brief, and, so to 
speak, chrysalis existence, to droop beneath the 
frosts of death, and wane and wither away into 
utter and everlasting extinction, like some beau- 
teous flower, whose tinted, downy petals inclose 
the germ of some precious fruit, when stricken by 
an untimely frost ? 

Questions these which men can never solve. 

I. They can not prove that such is the destined 
end of mind. No man has ever seen the soul ex- 
tinguished. None have ever heard it give up the 
ghost. We may doubt its continued existence; 
we may fear its final extinguishment ; but beyond 
this we can not go. To arrive at a certainty of an- 
nihilation is impossible. 

34 



402 THE PARABLE 

2. Neither do I think we can, assisted by naught 
but nature's Hght, certainly know that the soul shall 
live forever. Much may plausibly be argued on this 
point — much has been said — but when it is all told, 
and best told, it has never succeeded in removing 
most harassing doubts from the minds of those best 
able to think, to reason and decide. After all the 
most vigorous exertions of the cleverest, most can- 
did and profound minds, they have been led to 
exclaim : 

'* Will Spring never visit the moldering urn? 
Will day never davi^n on the night of the grave? 
Shall I, alone, be left abandoned in the dust, 
When Spring, relenting, lets the flowers revive? 
Shall Nature's voice to man alone unjust, bid 
Him, though doomed to perish, hope to live ?'' 

I know what has been said, and plausibly said, 
on the subject of immortality. But be}^ond a 
pleasing probabihty human reason can not go. It 
can not bring forward a decision so authoritative 
and final as to dispel our doubts, . and hush our 
fears, and quiet our anxieties. And for this rea- 
son, viz : we are as dependent on God for the con- 
tinuation of our existence as for the beginning of 
it. Should the Almighty withdraw his sustaining, 
upholding power, then would we be, as though we 
had never been. The question, then, ** Shall we 
live forever?" resolves itself into another, ''Does 
God propose that we shall ? Does he intend always 
to continue our existence?" This question can 
never be settled beyond dispute by any a priori^ 



• From cause to effect — Ed. 



OF THE RICH MAJV AND LAZARUS, 403 

reasonings about the nature or the properties of the 
soul. Whether it be spiritual or whether it be ma- 
terial it can not exist unless upheld by him, and it 
can not cease to exist unless he wills it so. It is 
manifest, therefore, that when we have proved the 
soul to be material, or proved it to be spiritual, we 
have not advanced a single step in proving either its 
mortality or its immortality. After all, we must go 
back and seek the resolution of the other question, 
** What has God determined concerning this thing, 
and has he revealed that determination to us ? If 
so, when and where? I look around me — I find a 
book which professes to be a revelation of his mind 
and will upon the points which it handles. I, as in 
duty bound, examine its vouchers and find them 
more than sufficient — I find the evidences in behalf 
of its divine origin so perfect and so conclusive as 
to force my unhesitating and entire assent. I find, 
upon full and fair examination, that I can no more 
doubt this book to be a veritable revelation from 
God than I can doubt my own existence. Satisfied 
on this head, I examine its contents, and there find 
that it is the purpose of God that my soul shall be 
immortal. My doubts are dissipated, my anxieties 
quieted, my fears dispelled. I find that y^csiis Christ 
abolished death, and brought life and immortality to 
light through the gospel. I will not abuse your pa- 
tience, nor insult your intelligence, by offering to 
prove that the Scriptures teach the doctrine of a 
future and endless existence. This by common 
consent is conceded. 

But there are questions connected with this one 



404 ^^^^ PARABLE 

which are yet untouched, and which it may be well 
enough in passing to notice — as whether the soul is 
material or immaterial — whether it dies with the 
body and with the body will be revived at the resur- 
rection; or if after death it retains a separate and 
conscious existence until the resurrection. These 
are still open questions, to be decided in the same 
way with the preceding. I have, in a previous par- 
able, investigated this subject, and here need do no 
more than repeat results. To do so, then — the 
Scriptures decide that the soul is a spiritual being, 
different from, but being an inmate of, the body; 
that, at death, it is separated from it; but t«hat it 
does not die, become extinct or disorganized, but 
retaining its being and its activity, immediately 
passes into another state, of enjoyment or pain, 
according as it had in this world been interested or 
uninterested in the salvation through Jesus Christ. 
Such is the doctrine assumed in the parable. This 
is the truth assumed in the language of our Savior 
to the repentant thief, *'This day shalt thou be 
with me in paradise."* This was what led Paul 
to desire a release from this wearisome, troublesome 
world ; even that he might depart and be with Christ 
Jesus, ''Which was far better. "f This was what 
encouraged the sweet singer of Israel, as he went 
down into the valley of the shadow of death, and 
while its dark, sluggish waters swept heavily over 
him, even that he was going to dwell in the house 
of the Lord forever. This it was which elevated 
the very rudest and meanest of the dying martyrs 

^''' Luke xxiii. 43. t Philippians i. 23. 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS, 



405 



to the highest pitch of moral heroism, and called 
forth shouts instead of groans, and songs instead of 
tears. And, finally, this has always been the faith 
of the holy Catholic Church of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, in all countries and in all past duration. 
With so many unequivocal declarations there ought 
to be no doubt concerning what the Bible has re- 
vealed upon these questions. It asserts them time 
and again; and as there is no fact in nature which 
does not entirely harmonize Avith this view, and as 
there is the best possible evidence for believing the 
Bible to be the word of God, there is an end to dis- 
cussion. If my assumption, that the Scriptures are 
inspired, be true, my conclusion is unavoidable. 
And I can not refrain from remarking that it is as 
encouraging, as it is unavoidable. It is a conclusion 
which meets and satisfies the desires of the soul. 
Nothing is more distressing than the thought of an- 
nihilation ! — than the thought that our existence, 
after a few short and troubled years, is destined to 
abrupt extinguishment. Blot out this glorious 
truth from the catalogue of verities and of human 
faith, and the exclamation of the poet will spring 
with melancholy spontaneity from every breast : 

*' Whence springs this pleasing hope, this fond desire, 
This longing after immortality ? 
Or whence this secret dread, this inward horror, 
Of falling into naught ? Why shrinks the soul 
Back on herself, and startles at destruction ?" 

But no ! this desire is not destined to an everlast- 
ing bhght. Our lamp is not ordained to go out in 
obscure and endless darkness ; but it shall burn 



i. 



4o6 



THE PARABLE 



brighter and brighter until it shall shine in the upper 
firmament as a star, forever and ever. These god- 
like powers of mind shall not be nipped by the frosts 
of death, when they have but just begun to expand 
their blooming petals to the air and sunlight of 
heaven. These deep and earnest longings after 
intellectual food shall yet be gratified, when, sta- 
tioned upon some bold, bald promontory, which 
lifts aloft its reverend head high above the common 
level, in yon ^'bright center" of the universe, we 
shall look far out upon the deep blue ocean of sur- 
rounding space, and take in, with the power of a 
seraph's vision, the vast variety of suns and moons 
and stars and systems, which lie spread out, in a 
divinely magnificent and orderly confusion, around 
the great, eternal, topless, boundless throne. And 
wider and wider shall be the range of vision, because 
more and evermore shall our spirit powers expand, 
and higher and higher shall the wings of spirit soar 
far up above the heights untrodden yet by angel's 
feet, ''and be at home where angels yet still bashful 
look." 

Great God !' I thank thee for my being. I glorify 
thy Name and Son, that thou hast deigned to vouch- 
safe to me, a weak and mortal man, to me, a vile 
and rebel worm, immortal life, eternal joys and an 
ever-progressive elevation — even high up along 
those speechless heights of glorious being, which 
are as yet unreached by angel's wing, as yet un- 
soiled by seraph's feet. O Father ! it is true, 
**eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 



407 



entered into the heart of man, the things thou hast 
prepared for them that love thee."* 

Now we can understand, my brethren, why Mo- 
ses, under the influence of the Spirit of God, chose 
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God 
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. f 
Now we can understand how Abraham, and Isaac, 
and Jacob, and Elijah, and David, and the host of 
patriarchs and prophets, those pilgrims and stran- 
gers in the earth, whose sorrows were multiplied, 
whose days were evil and few, have at last received 
the fulfillment of those exceeding great and precious 
promises, which had been given for their encourage- 
ment in the land of their pilgrimage. Now we see 
how those holy, heroic martyrs, who **were op- 
pressed on every side, distressed, cast down ; who 
had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, 
moreover of bonds and imprisonments ; who were 
tempted and were slain with the sword ; who wan- 
dered in deserts and mountains, being destitute, 
afflicted, tormented ;"]!; we know, now, I say, that 
they were wise, and that they are rewarded. We 
see that eventually there is no hurt in holiness — that 
there is great gain in godhness. We can see now, 
how Paul, even when of all men it made him the 
most miserable, could still hold on to Christianity 
and glory in the cross — how he could cheerfully 
suffer the loss of all things, yea, count his most pre- 
cious possessions as filth, that he might glory in the 
cross of Christ. 

These reflections lead to a second remark : The 



I Corinthians ii. 9. t Hebrews xi. 25. % Hebrews xi. 36-39. 



4o8 



THE PARABLE 



assurance of a future state ought to have a mighty 
influence upon our affections and conduct. The 
things which are seen are temporal, but those that 
are not seen are eternal. The providences of God 
which follow us here, whether pleasing or painful, 
so far as they relate merely to our present life, 
ought not to be the objects of either great desire or 
dread. A little while, and the pleasures and pains 
of the present state shall have no existence ; our 
possessions and pursuits shall be numbered with the 
things that were. 

You have dragged out a life of labor and sorrow, 
of disease and disappointment, of penury and pain, 
for threescore years and ten. Regard it not. One 
step more and you are at home ; one effort, one en- 
durance more, and you shall soon forget all, in your 
perfect and everlasting rest, your unending heaven. 

Or you have danced away the rosy, reeling 
hours of fourscore years in frolic and frivolity, and 
gay and splendid dissipation, amid the circles of the 
sensual and selfish ; and where now are those frothy 
joys and fleeting hours? They are gone. They 
have evaporated. They have^ vanished into smoke. 
Have left no permanent value or pleasure behind. 
The feathery footsteps of those withered years have 
not left a single trace of bliss upon the soul. Life 
to you has been a miserable empty dream — a hollow 
dream. And now you must lift up your eyes in 
hell, and shall beg imploringly, and beg in vain, for 
some little alleviation of your misery, for a little 
drop of water to cool your parched and blistered 
tongue ! Oh, that men were wise ; that they would 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS, 409 

live as become an immortal race ; that they would 
secure the one thing needful ; that they would live 
for heaven ! 

If you were agoing to remove from your native 
country, to make your permanent residence in a 
strange and distant land, would you not seek out all 
the available information concerning your future 
home? Would you not set your affairs in order? 
Would you neglect any known and necessary pre- 
caution or preparation ? Aye, all this would you 
do to make yourself comfortable in your future 
home, even though, in the course of nature, it is to 
be your home only for a short time ! And how 
much more then should you be solicitous about 
your eternal home beyond the grave ! Oh, that men 
were wise ; that they would know this ; that they 
would consider their latter end ! 



I 



4IO 



THE PARABLE 



SERMON XXIV. 



The Parable of the Rich Man 



AND Lazarus. 

LUKE XVI. 23-26, 
{Second Sermon.) 



Men are mortal ; they soon die They come forth 
into existence upon the surface of a material world, 
exist a while, then pass away; and the living muscle, 
and the blooming cheek, and the beaming eye are 
palsied and withered in death. Their days pass like 
a shadow ! Man goeth to his long home, and where 
is he? Our life is as a vapor, which appears for a 
moment, and is caught, and tossed, and whirled in 
the storms of human passion, and then vanishes away. 
Everywhere we walk over the ashes of the dead ; and 
when a few more years are past and gone, we, too, 
shall cease to exist and act upon the busy, exciting 
theater of time. Our pursuits and passions shall lie 
forgotten in the grave. The ringing laugh and 
bounding footfall of merry youth, and the sterner 
struggles of manhood's fiercer passions ; the shouts 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS, 41 1 

and songs of gladness, the sobs and wails of sorrow, 
shall mingle their varied and discordant sounds above 
the place where sleeps the unconscious ashes of him 
who speaks and those who hear to-day. Deep and 
quiet is the sleep of death I Dark and chill are the 
gloomy, narrow vales of the grave I And is this the 
final destiny of man ? So the atheist tries to dream, 
but we have proved the contrary. We have shown 
that at death the soul is separated from the body ; 
that it passes into another state of being; that in 
that state its condition corresponds with what was 
its character here; that at the end of the world the 
dead will be raised, the living changed, and our race 
judged; and that our everlasting state shall be de- 
cided according to the strictest rules of right. Those 
who have done well shall receive glory, honor and 
immortality; and those who have done ill shall per- 
ish forever. We shall not now stay to prove what 
we have shown so often, that for the impenitent there 
is allotted a future and everlasting punishment in 
hell. Let us rather inquire what the Scriptures 
reveal concerning it. 

Is it indeed true, then, that after our brief exist- 
ence here upon earth, very many of us, for our 
crimes and rebellions against the God who made us, 
and would have saved us, must pass away from 
this panorama of beauty and grandeur, into a 

dark, burning and everlasting hell amid the 

worm, and the fire, and the devils, and the 

. damned, to wail away a wearisome eternity of woe? 

And what is more astonishing still, shall this be the 

case although men might avoid it — even thougli 



412 THE PARABLE 

they are besought in everyway to turn and live? 
Surely, my hearers, you either do not believe that 
there is a hell, or you have a very partial and mistaken 
idea of the unspeakable reality of its horrors, else 
your behavior would be far different from what it is! 
Let us then endeavor to look, through the glass of 
revelation, into that dark and gloomy region to 
which you seem determined to travel, and in which 
you seem to be determined to make your abode, 
notwithstanding all the efforts made to dissuade you 
from it. And may the eternal, light-giving and 
sight-giving God grant you to-day such a view of it 
as shall induce you to turn away your feet from the 
broad road which leads to death; as shall induce you 
to flee from the wrath to come, and seek and secure 
a shelter under the shadow of the wings of the 
Eternal ! 

Before entering upon Scripture investigation, I 
will be permitted to premise, and you will be careful 
to remember, that many of the expressions with 
which we shall meet in the Scriptures are metaphor- 
ical. Figures of speech are the result of imperfec- 
tions of human language, or of human conception. 
When these fail, we resort to figures of speech to 
make up the deficiency. Human language is God's 
chosen vehicle, through which he conveys to us a 
revelation of his performances, and of his, as yet, 
unexecuted purposes. Again, human language is 
invented for the communication of human ideas. If 
other ideas than ours are to be expressed, we find 
that we have neither range to express them, nor 
capacity adequate to conceive them. This is the 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 413 

case with much that exists in the spirit-world. Paul 
heard in the heavenly paradise words which it would 
neither be lawful nor possible for man to utter. Now 
because we neither have language to express, nor 
capacities to conceive the tremendous realities of the 
future, it follows that the only way by which we can 
receive knowledge of them at all is by comparison 
and figures. 

To be imprisoned in dismal dungeons ; to be tor- 
mented evermore; to sink downward, and still down- 
ward, from the lowest deep into a still lower depth 
of darkness, and fire, and brimstone, and torment, 
in that horrific pit which has no bottom, pursued by 
the wrath of God and pierced by the deathless 
worm ; to gasp and sink away into the speechless 
horrors of the second death — and all this forever 
and ever! 

Such are some of the expressions which lie scat- 
tered through the word of God, from which we are 
to gather an idea of the torments of hell. And in 
them, you will observe, are included the ideas of loss 
and suffering! 

Notice what the rich man lost in hell; what all 
must lose ! They lose both earth and heaven ! They 
who go there leave, like Dives, their wealth and 
friends, and the pleasure and ease of earth, and the 
glorious altitudes and beatitudes of heaven. You 
will lose all those houses, and fields, and possessions 
for which you are now so careful and painstaking. 
Naked shall you be driven out cf the world, and 
your gold and silver shall eat as a canker and burn 
as fire in the prison of hell. Your memory shall 



414 



THE PARABLE 



rot and your friends shall be lost. Those among 
them who were pious, and who watched over and 
prayed for you ; who followed you with entreaty and 
exhortation, are changed now in nature and estate. 
The pious parent admonishes no more; the faithful 
partner entreats no more; and the pious child prays 
no more that you may turn and live. 

Those among your friends, who, like yourselves, 
followed lying vanities and forsook their own mer- 
cies; dead to all those kindly sympathies which 
blessed you here, and transformed into demons of 
rage and all unholy passions, no longer bathe your 
fevered temples, nor chase your trickling tears ; but 
every one of them, like so many furies, gather round 
you to feed and fan the rising flames of wrath, and 
draw the scorching cords of justice more tightly 
around your black, and swollen, and writhing frame. 
Children, partners, parents, brothers, sisters, friends, 
neighbors and acquaintances, whom your example 
helped to ruin, shall then, like millstones fixed around 
your neck, drag you downward still lower in that 
gulf of sulphurous flame, and even curse you as the 
cause or the accomplice of their ruin. Devils, and 
flames, and storms consume you, since even fondest 
friends in frantic madness gnash their teeth, and 
glare with strange and infernal fury upon you! 
When pain, or fever, or disaster now comes, you 
expect and receive the consolations of true-hearted, 
sympathizing friends. If poverty follow on the 
heels of disaster, how many there are to pity, to 
help, to lift you, if they can, and set you on your 
feet again ! But now, such of them as were your 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 



415 



companions in guilt, seduced perhaps by you, shall 
gather round and howl and gnash their teeth, and 
stamp upon and curse you, and gloat upon you in 
your agony. Stripped evermore of your purple and 
fine linen, you shall be clothed in flames, and chains, 
and darkness ! Lifted forever from your downy beds 
of ease, you shall lie down in everlasting burnings. 
No more regaled with delicacies, which your riches 
once procured, you shall be fed with the burning 
coals of juniper! Caught and whirled from your 
peaceful dwellings, here you shall dwell in dungeons 
dark forevermore! 

But in this dark abode you not only suffer the loss 
of wealth and friends, but also of the power of en- 
joyment. Amid all the sorrows which surround 
you here, you have many pleasing sensations — those 
of sense and imagination; the music of the grove, 
and field, and brook, floating in strains of melody 
upon the sighing air; the perfume of flowers; the 
lowing of herds and the bleating of flocks. There 
are waving fields, and winding streams, and bloom- 
ing vales, dotted here and there with peasant cot- 
tages, sending up their curling smoke like incense to 
the hoary, everlasting mountain, dim and hazy in the 
distance. There are the joys, too, of invention and 
discovery, of investigation and contemplation ! There 
are the pleasures of memory, and the triumphs of 
hope, and the sweetly painful ecstasies of love. All 
these you may enjoy in this nether world; but in 
hell you must part with them all — each — forever and 
ever! Every aching fiber of the soul which binds 
you to them shall be suddenly, rudley and forever 



4l6 THE PARABLE 

snapped asunder. The atmosphere of hell bears 
other sounds upon its whirling, roaring breath than 
the melodies of earth. When the last morning of your 
life here shall have dawned, and your fond, fluttering, 
failing heart shall have throbbed its last pulse of 
earthly affection ; when your eye has sent its last 
flash of joy, as it looked out upon *' the pomp of 
hills and garniture of fields,'' and then closed for- 
ever; when your ear shall have caught the last faint 
echoes of nature's melodies, as they sink and die 
away along the outmost coast of time; and when, 
for the last time on earth, you have received the cup 
of enjoyment from the hand of Science, and then 
pass away into the land where your wisdom shall be 
counted foolishness indeed ; then shall eye, and ear, 
and heart, and soul be filled with other and less 
pleasing objects; with ** sights which make the 
cheeks of darkness pale" to see them; with ** sounds 
which make the knees of terror quake" to hear 
them; with passions hot, violent, blasting, as the 
boiling floods of hell; with knowledge of virtue for- 
ever lost, and happiness forever gone ; with remorse, 
and death, and dark despair forever preying on the 
helpless soul! Sad change of objects and emotions! 
And then — to know no other change forever ! 

But in counting the punishment of loss inflicted 
on the reprobate, we have not finished when we 
have recorded the loss of earthly good. It were 
well indeed if this were all. But the losses, oh how 
unspeakably more, in the loss of heaven ! Of this 
loss, also, you will be keenly conscious. The rich 
man, lifting up his eyes from hell, saw Abraham afar 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 



417 



off, and Lazarus in his bosom. He saw this, though 
they were in heaven. The parable then represents 
the rich man, though in hell, as conscious of the 
beatific joys of heaven ; as able to gaze into its mag- 
nificent plains, and to look upon the transports of 
its teeming, joyous population. From this we learn 
that the reprobates have greatly enlarged views of 
the grandeur of that heaven which they bartered 
away for the pleasures of sin. And how must this 
affect your condition? Can it do less than unspeak- 
ably aggravate your misery ? When you see many 
come from the East and from the West, from the 
North and from the South, and sit down with Abra- 
ham, Isaac and Jacob, and yourselves shut out, 
through your own folly, into outer darkness, can 
the sight have other influence than to swell unspeak- 
ably your grief, and aggravate your despair? 

When you, looking upward, gaze on those regions 
of light, which lie spread out in all their magnificent 
grandeur, which befits the residence of royalty 
divine; when you look upon those plains of ever- 
lasting verdure, ringing with songs of never-ceasing 
melody, watered by the broad and ever-flowing 
river, and bathed in tides of never-ceasing light ; 
when you see the jasper walls, and golden streets, 
and pearly gates of the New Jerusalem, and view 
the beaming eyes, and radiant forms, and burnished 
crowns, and golden harps of her teeming, joyous 
population; when you listen to the shout which 
rings far out among the lofty mountains, and rever- 
berates even down to the very midst of hell, in ac- 
cents like the sound of many waters, like the sound 



4i8 



THE PARABLE 



of mighty thunderings — Glory to God! Hallelujah! 
Amen! — when you see and hear all this (and if, as 
many of the best and wisest teachers affirm, you 
shall carry all the corrupt and tormenting passions 
within you, to the regions of the second death, un- 
hampered by the restraints imposed upon you in 
this nether world) ; and when you shall be given up 
to the fury of unbounded, malignant activity — how 
great will be your misery and mortification, when 
you shall see amid all that bliss not only friends and 
acquaintances, but also those that you formerly de- 
spised and trampled upon, now sitting down with 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and you yourselves 
thrust out into burning, outer darkness, where is 
w^eeping and gnashing of teeth — where the worm 
dieth not, where the soul rests not, where peace and 
ease exist not, and where hope never enters I 

Here is a point upon which I want you to dwell. 
I have so spoken of your losses, when you lose 
heaven and earth, that you understand me to teach 
that these constitute a very material part of future 
punishment; but I should like you to understand 
also that another great element of that dire retribu- 
tion will consist of the unrestrained and agonizing 
activity of those appetites and passions which are 
not mortified in this world, but, on the contrary, are 
nourished and cherished. These, we think, are in- 
cluded in the Scriptures under the metaphor of the 
worm that never dies. It is taken from one of the 
most disgusting and dreadful afflictions which it is 
possible to suffer here. To be eaten up alive by 
worms, generated in the black, fetid, festering flesh, 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 



419 



and which make a nauseating carnival upon the very 
flesh they feed on, is one of those awful ends which 
God in mercy but rarely brings upon our rebel race. 
But nauseating and disgusting as it is, it is for that 
reason selected as the most fitting emblem of the 
punishment which shortly awaits all of you that re- 
fuse to flee from the wrath to come, at the hands of 
those very passions which you are now nourishing 
into vigor and activity. For not more surely do the 
worms riot in the putrid sore they breed in, than 
will ambition, pride, envy, carnal sensuality, and 
every other malignant passion and unholy appetite, 
riot in uninterrupted, unwearied and unending activ- 
ity upon the soul and body in which they find a hab- 
itation ; and the fact that they can never, by any 
possibility, be gratified in hell, will terribly aggravate 
the agonies of that fearful place. 

In order to realize this point more fully, let us 
present to you, not the effects of every evil passion 
(for the limits of a sermon will not admit this), but 
of one — the passion of anger, resentment or revenge. 
If we see how it destroys the happiness of both the 
object and the subject of it; if we see how it seeks 
the ruin of individuals and families, neighborhoods 
and nations; or if you turn inward and see how it 
disturbs the peace and destroys the happiness of your 
own bosom ; how, especially, when unable to gratify 
itself in the injury of the object of it, it takes sleep 
from your eyes, and makes you, in the misery of 
madness, toss and turn in your bed all the weary 
night; and when you recall how this madness has 
brought upon you the punishment of parent, over- 



420 THE PARABLE 

seer or ruler; when you recollect how you have 
been carried away by insane fury upon feeling pain 
produced by some accident, and how, in frenzy of 
suffering, you sought to vent your fury on the stick 
or stone by which you were wounded; then you 
have before you a faint type of the frantic misery of 
that fury which shall forever boil and burn along all 
the channels of sensation, in your soul and body, 
not only against your fellow-reprobates, who gnash 
upon you and against the fires and the chains which 
bind and burn you, but oh! — most horrible of all! — 
against the God who punishes you ! If you hate the 
man who hurts you now, what insane madness will 
seize upon you when all the furies of hell shall clutch 
and crush you? If, when by chance, a stone or 
stick put you to pain, you have endeavored in your 
fury to revenge yourself on it, oh ! what boiling, 
blistering, impotent madness shall swell, and dash, 
and foam through all the regions of your soul and 
body, against the inanimate and unconscious fires 
that burn you ? But if this be so, what unendurable 
torture of madness shall your guilty, corrupt soul 
feel against the God who justly sends these torments 
upon you ? And this inexpressible torture of frantic 
madness shall be aggravated still more by the con- 
scious certainty that your revenge can never reach 
nor affect the object it hates. And if it were possible 
to relent, there might be at least a mitigation of this 
dire agony ; but this can never be ! Though here at 
times you may feel some relentings toward God in 
the intervals of your hate ; yet there will be no tears, 
no regrets, no relenting there ! Such fixed and eter- 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 42 1 

nal hardness of heart shall have gathered and settled 
upon your soul, such impenitence and obstinacy, as 
will never melt, or relent, or submit. Amazing 
scene of complicated misery and rebellion ! A guilty 
spirit that can not repent! A rebellious spirit that 
can not submit, that can not relent, even when op- 
pressed and crushed under the hand of a justly 
incensed Omnipotence! A hardened spirit, which 
can not melt or yield, but which ever grows harder, 
even in the awful fires of an everlasting hell ! 

Behold, the misery which o?te unsanctified passion 
shall gather upon you. Compute, if you can, the 
amazing amount. Multiply that by all the other 
unholy passions of the soul, and then, if you are not 
stunned or bewildered, shall you be able to catch 
some faint idea of the misery which shall be heaped 
upon you by your unholy passions and propensities. 

But even this is not all. You make gods of these 
passions and propensities here ; you spend the time, 
and health, and strength, and wealth upon them, 
which ought to be spent in advancing the glory of 
God. These you shall carry with you into hell, 
where, lacking every object to satisfy them, they 
will tease and torment you. There will be unsatis- 
fied and raging desires, together with perpetual dis- 
appointment and endless confusion, thrown upon all 
your schemes and efforts to obtain objects to gratify 
them ; and there will be intense and constant misery 
when you feel eternal hunger and no bread to' relieve 
It, and eternal thirst, without one drop of water to 
cool your parched tongue; eternal fatigue and wear- 
iness, without power to sleep or rest; eternal lust, 



432 THE PARABLE . 

witliold any hope of gratification. My fellow-men, 
hear and heed me ! Will you not repent and reform 
while you may? Would it not be better to deny 
yourselves; to mortify your lusts; to keep the body 

fin subjection, than to strengthen and nourish all 

' these to your eternal torment ? 

But let us take one step farther, and what do we 
see more ? Passing all the punishments of loss ; 
withdrawing our attention from the sorrows which 
must, in the nature of things, spring up in the cor- 
rupt souls and bodies of lost men ; looking no more 
upon the workings of the deathless worm ; if we cast 
our observations upon the burnings of the quench- 
less fire; if we look upon the torments .you shall 
everlastingly suffer from devils, and from reprobates 
of your own race, and from the place and instru- 
ments of torture there, and, above all, from the pow- 
erful hand of an angry God, we shall not find any 
alleviation, but a mighty increase in the spectacle 
of woe which shall present itself for consideration. 
As for the place, it is a prison from which escape 
is hopeless: 

*' A wall of fiery adamant sprung up- 
Wall mountainious tremendous, flaming liigh, 
Above all flight of hope. •** * * * 

Wide was the place, 
And deep as wide, and ruinous as deep. 
Beneath I saw a lake of burning fire, 
With tempest tossed perpetually, and still 
The waves of fiery darkness 'gainst the rocks 
Of dark damnation broke, and music made 
Of melancholy sort; and over head, 
And' all around, wind warred with wind, storm howled 
To storm, and lightning forked lightning crossed, 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 423 

And thunder answered thunder, muttering sounds 
Of sullen wrath; and far as sight could pierce, 
Or down descend in caves of hopeless depth, 
Through all that dungeon of unfading fire, 
I saw most miserable beings walk, 
Burning continually, yet unconsumed ; 
Forever wasting, yet enduring still ; 
Dying perpetually, yet never dead. 

iiJ viJ iiJ * ^i* ^|t vi^ 

The thunders from above responding spoke 
These words, which, through the caverns of perdition 
Forlornly echoing, fell on every ear : 
'JTe knew your dutij^ hut ye did it noiJ " 

This, this is the kind of a place to which so many 
of you are hasting as rapidly as time and crime can 
carry you ! 

And it were well if even this were all. If, after 
the conscious loss of heaven and earth, the tortures 
of passion and appetite, the burning, tossing lake of 
fire and brimstone, and the gloomy horrors of the 
roaring winds, and the reverberating thunders of the 
dark, eternal prison — -it were well if this were all. 
But bear in mind that in every bosom, of all those 
gnashed, and crisped, and ruined multitudes, there 
burn the same evil passions and appetites ; the same 
anger, and malice, and wrath, and vengeance, and 
fury which make your own a pent-up volcano, and 
that you can not escape from them. You will not 
be able to avoid your companions in crime, nor 
those you seduced from the paths of virtue, nor from 
those yo\l encouraged to acts of sin by your exam- 
ple, and you will have to meet your intimates, your 
wife and children, your household, whom you did 
not train up to walk in obedience to God. These, 



424 



THE PARABLE 



all frantic with pain, mad with misery, shall wreak 
their vengeance upon you, as one of the authors of 
their ruin; and as if your sufferings were too light, 
while you reel, and stagger, and sink beneath the 
many and terrible blows of their vengeance, the 
devils also, blasted by the blazing, bursting bolts of 
the Almighty, gnashing their horrid jaws, bellowing 
and roaring in the liquid, fiery flood, they, too, will 
not be backward in exciting themselves against you. 
Oh, horrible blindness and perversity of infatuated 
men ! Why will you trample on the body and the 
blood of Jesus Christ? Why will you scorn the 
heavenly messengers and madly rush to such a ruin? 
We have not, even yet, told you the worst. The 
great, the eternal God himself, shall be your Execu- 
tioner! ''Tophet is ordamed of old. It is deep and 
large ; the pile titer e of is fire and much wood ; the 
h'eath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth 
kindle itr^ And what can be more terrible than when 
he rises to pour out all his WTath upon you ? ^Tis 
he, who, with great hands of omnipotent vengeance, 
will chain you in the burning lake, and kindle its 
fires with seven- fold fury around you, and arm his 
red right hand with seven-fold horrors against you ! 
How, O sinners, will your heart endure or your 
hand be strong when all his stores are opened, and 
the red-hot firmament of hell shall spout its cataracts 
of fire upon you? Who knows the power of the 
wrath of the Almighty? Who can tell the terrible- 
ness of his fury, when ^'He shall rain S7tares, fire and 
brijns tone, and a horrible tempest upon the wicked ?''\ 

- Isaiah xxx. 2>3' t Psalm xi. 6. 



OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 425 

But even if it could be so described as that you 
might be able to apprehend it, still you could not 
know it all, until it is added that the whole of this 
amazing sum of agony and woe must be endured; 
yea, and ever increased throughout the boundless 
ages of eternity ! Great as is the fall in the begin- 
ning, it shall become deeper and deeper. For your 
prison is a bottomless pit; your vices and depravity 
will ever grow ; your crimes and guilt will ever mul- 
tiply. It will be so with all your infernal compeers. 
Hence your ruin and misery will and must ever in- 
crease; your pit is and must be a bottomless pit! 
Oh, horrible abode for the ceaseless ages of eternity ! 

Now, O my friends, will you not think of this? 
Why will ye die? For what is it that you risk the 
awful hazards of an awful eternity? Why will you 
reject the offered atonement? Jesus offers to save 
every one of you from this awful end. He died to 
save you from the second death. In much love to 
you, when there was no hand that could save, he left 
the bosom of the Father and suffered the fearful 
agonies of death, that you might live. Why will 
you reject him? Is gold or gain, or the pleasures of 
sin for a season, so pleasant, so precious ? Awake, 
O sleeper! What meanest thou? Yet a little while 
and your day will be past, and your only hope gone 
forever. Turn from your sins, and think of and re- 
ceive Jesus Christ, and close in with the offers and 
overtures of mercy. Terrible as are the plagues of 
hell, there is no need that you should endure them. 
Are you willing to be saved? I am commissioned 
to ratify the bargain with you all. Will you con- 

36 



426 



THE PARABLES 



sent? Oh, do not let another moment pass until 
/you do; you may never have another opportunity. 

But you say: ^' These threatenings are for great 
sinners. I am not one of these. Surely God will 
make a difference between them and me/' I answer, 
not such a difference as to save you. It is true, 
there are degrees of punishment in hell ; but in 
God's sight you are very wicked now; and, remem- 
ber, your crimes and corruption will ever increase in 
hell, and the punishment also. See, what a great 
and unknown evil is in the nature of sin. If the 
punishments of sin, appointed by a just and holy 
God, have so much terror in them, how much are 
sinful men mistaken in the idea they form of the 
great and blessed God ! 

How reasonable to believe that such a hell as we 
have described is prepared for the impenitent, since 
there are so many appearances of it on earth. 

How great a matter of surprise is it that the thou- 
sands, and ten thousands, who stand upon the brink 
of this awful gulf, should be so insensible to it ! 



OF THE POUNDS. 



427 



SERMON XXV. 
The Parable of the jPounds. 



LUKE XIX. 1 1-27, 
{First Sermon.) 



I. Tke literal sense. 

The parables are different from fables, in this that 
they are always founded on some fact in nature or 
society. Some years before this parable was spoken, 
Archelaus went to Rome, soliciting a confirmation 
of his father's will. Rome was a far country. There 
was a faction in Judea opposed to him. His citi- 
zens hated him. They probably sent a delegation 
to Rome to operate against him. Such things were 
of frequent occurrence. A similar state of things 
obtains in this country, when politicians go to Wash- 
ington, seeking office. The negotiations for office 
were often tedious and expensive. 

Further ; it was a thing of frequent occurrence 
that masters gave their servants money and time, to 
be employed in business on his account. 

II. Difference between this parable and that of 
the talents. Matthew xxv. 14--30. 



428 THE PARABLE 

1. Difference in time and place. This was spoken 
by our Savior on his way to Jerusalem, and as he 
was drawing near the city; that, on Mt. Olivet, three 
days after his arrival. 

2. Difference in audience. This was spoken to 
the disciples and mixed multitudes of believers and 
unbelievers ; that to the innermost circle of his most 
select disciples. 

3. Difference in scope. This was designed to 
warn his hearers against the unfounded hope that 
*^the kingdom of God should immediately appear," 
and to guard them against the disappointment and 
desertion consequent thereon, and to stimulate his 
disciples to unflagging fidelity and zeal, by holding 
before them the recompense of reward. 

4. Thus we account for the differences between 
these twin parables. 

III. Spiritual sense. 

1. 'M certain nobleman'' This is Jesus Christ. 

2. ^^ A far country y This represents heaven, which 
is both locally and morally ''far," u e., distant. 

3. ''71:? receive for himself a kingdom!' Matthew 
xxviii. 18. I Corinthians xv. 23-28. Ephesians i. 
20-23. 

4. '^ And to return!' Christ's advent at the end 
of the world. 

5. " Called his ten servants',' or ten servants of his. 
These represent professors of religion. 

6. ''Delivered them ten poundsT Natural and 
moral endowments— health, strength, fortune, edu- 
cation, social relations, intellectual power, con- 
science. 



OF THE POUNDS. 



429 



7. '^ Occupy till I coined Employ all these for vie 
and for your eternal interests. We are thus taught 
that all our gifts and graces ^ all our opportunities and 
advantages^ both for our own personal culture and for 
the welfare of otJiers, are a trust committed to us by 
yesus Christ, zvhich zve are required to use for Ids glory ^ 
and for which zve must give an account. Our learn- 
ing, skill and influence are all to be employed for the 
glory of God, and for our own and other's welfare. 
Our gifts and graces, our opportunities and advant- 
ages, the instructions and example of pious parents, 
the ordinances and good influences which we have 
enjoyed, have been bestowed upon us not merely 
for our own improvement and comfort, but to qual- 
ify us for doing good to others and for promoting 
Christ's cause in the world. 

IV. The account rendered. 

I. ^' Thy pound hath gained ten pounds y The 
servant who -could say this came with alacrity and 
joy. The '^ Dies Ira^ and many similar hymns 
represent the day of judgment as a day of terror. 
This is a false view so far as Christians are con- 
cerned. The day will be to them a joyful day. 
Romans viii. 18-24. 2 Thessalonians i. 7-10. 2 
Timothy iv. 8. Hebrews xiii. 17. Revelation 
xxii. 20. 

'Let it be observed that all the glory is ascribed to 
God. '* 774^' pound hath gained ten pounds." So 
Paul said, *'I labored more abundantly than they 
all : yet not I, but the grace of God which was with 
me." I Corinthians xv. 10. 

V. The awarding sentence. 



430 "^HE PARABLE 

1. *' Because thou hast been faithfuV —faithful, not 
successful. Blessed be God for that sentence; for 
not always the most faithful are the most successful, 
as judged from the human stand-point ; for exam- 
ple, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and our Savior him- 
self. 

2. ^^ Have thou authority over tc7t cities^ This is a 
promise of great promotion in the eternal world. 
Christians will not all be equal in glory and joy. 
Not the most successful here will be the most hon- 
ored there, but the most faithful. The promotion 
of Christians hereafter will be entirely proportioned 
to their fidelity here. 

{a) There will be degrees of glory. Matthew 
xix. 28. Philippians iv. i. 2 Corinthians i. 14. 
Matthew vi. 19, with i Timothy vi. 19. 

{b) Christians will not be rewarded for their 
works. Only the merit of Christ secures heaven. 

{c) But Christians will be rewarded according 
TO their works. Daniel xii. 3. Romans ii. 6-1 1. 
Revelation ii. 26-28; iii. 12, 21. **To him that 
soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.'' Prov- 
erbs xi. 18. ''He that soweth sparingly shall reap 
also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully 
shall reap also bountifully.'' 2 Corinthians ix. 6. 

3. This great promotion will consist in the follow- 
ing things : 

{a) Higher endowments of body, soul and spirit. 
All shall be like Christ in nature ; but some will be 
like him a higher degree than others. The most 
faithful in personal culture and in social duty, and in 
maintaining a life of holy communion with God, 



I 



OF THE PO UNDS. 43 1 

shall have the highest endowments — shall be the 
most splendidly furnished for the high employments 
and enjoyments of heaven. 

(d) Higher posts of honor, and duty, and joy 
among the immortals and in the presence of God. 

These higher qualities and positions, we may 
rest assured, will immeasurably tell on the glory 
of the eternal destiny. In this life we find 
that difference of gifts and advantages, if all are 
alike faithful, makes a very wide difference in our 
earthly lot. By analogy, I suppose, the same ever- 
increasing differences will be eternally evolving in 
heaven. Heaven is generally assumed to be a pro- 
gressive state — from glory to glory. But the degrees 
of progress will be proportioned to the degrees of 
endowment at the resurrection. Those who then 
receive the highest endowments will forever make 
the greatest progress. But this is analogical and 
deductive, and I may err. Still, if I am right, what 
vast, what almost infinite differences will evolve in 
the progression of the future. 

The tables, in many cases, will then be completely 
turned. Some of those who are now up will then 
be down, and some of those who are now down will 
then be up. Some of those who are now weak, and 
poor and low, but very faithful, will then be strong 
and rich and high ; and some who are now strong 
and rich and high, but worldly and unspiritual, will 
then reap as they sowed. They shall be less glori- 
ously endowed at the resurrection, and shall fall 
farther and farther behind through all eternity. 



432 



THE PARABLE 



CONCLUSIONS FROM THE ABOVE VIEW. 



1. This view contains a very powerful argument 
for early piety. We should commence young, work 
hard, and remain steadfast until death. We should 
give earnest and careful attention to personal cul- 
ture — mortification of sin, cultivation of holy dis- 
positions, and communion with God. 

Youth, I think, in many points sustains the same 
relation to maturity and old age in this life, that this 
life sustains to the life to come. 

2. This view contains a powerful argument, for 
instant conversion, in the case of all, old and young. 

3. This view is a powerful appeal to Christians to 
be earnest and persevering. Let us be faithful. Let 
us deserve this commendation, ** She hath done what 
she could'' 



OF THE POUNDS, 



433 



SERMON XXVI. 
The Parablb of the Pounds. 



LUKE XIX. 12-27. 
{Second Sermon.) 



L The account of the wicked servant 

1. His character — **thou wicked servant'' — malig- 
nant or ill-disposed. Wicked — not wasteful, not 
chargeable with outward sins of commission, but of 
omission ; not an atheist, not an idolater, not a cor- 
rupter of the truth, not a perjurer, not profane, not 
a trampler on sacred institutions, not a Sabbath- 
breaker, not an open violator of any of the precepts 
of the decalogue ; in a word, not a positive but a 
negative sinner. He had not lived for God, nor for 
eternity, but had continued in the neglect of the 
great salvation. Matthew xxv. 3 1-40. Hebrews ii. 3. 

2. The cause of his conduct is to be sought in his 
mistaken views of the character of God. He re- 
garded God as '^austere'' — severe or cynical; as one 
who had no pity and no sympathy ; as one hard, ex- 
acting and cruel, and as destitute of all kindly feel- 
ing and generous disposition. 



434 ^^^ PARABLE 

Consequently, he had nmistaken views of the char- 
acter of the work. He looked upon it as all task 
and drudgery, and no pleasure ; as all sacrifice, and 
no gain. He looked upon the time and strength 
employed in his Master's services as unprofitable to 
himself. 

Hence there was naught but fear and reluctance — 
he hid indeed and restored, but employed not his 
Master's money. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

1. Hard thoughts of God are natural to man since 
the fall. The law, but not the gospel, is written on 
his heart. Genesis iii. lo. Romans ii. 14, 15. It 
is only by the renewing of the Holy Spirit that we 
can come fully and truly to believe the gospel. 
Romans viii. 14-17. John vi. 44, 65. Ephesians i. 
17; ii. 8. 

2. These hard thoughts of God and of his service 
are mistaken. He is not austere toward those who 
seek to serve and please him. It is not true that he 
is unsympathizing, or that he watches for our halt- 
ing and waits for our fall. Nor is it true that his 
service is a hard service, or that' he sends any to go 
a warfare on their own charges. On the contrary, 
we serve a good Master, who is not exacting, but 
will reward all our toils and sacrifices a hundred-fold. 
Matthew xix. 29. 

3. We should cherish honorable thoughts of the 
mercy and grace of God ; we should view him as he 
is revealed in the gospel — good and ready to forgive, 
rich in mercy to all that call upon him in truth, ready 



OF THE POUNDS, 435 

and mighty to save, ready and rich to reward, and as 
being the chief end and chief good of the soul. 

//. The judgment of the zvicked servant, 

'*Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee.'' Had 
he been wise and humble, even on his own view, he 
would have used the Master's gifts in the Master's 
interests. Had he not combined insolence with 
hypocrisy he would not have pleaded as he did. 

///. TJie sentence. 

/'Take from him the pound, and give it to him. that 
hath ten pounds." Here is annunciation of a univer- 
sal law in the divine government established over men. 
It is often asserted in the Gospels as applying to the 
moral and spiritual interests of men. But it is not 
to be confined to those interests; it is of universal 
application. Matthew xiii. 12. Mark iv. 25. Mat- 
thew XXV. 28. 

DOCTRINE. 

Use is the condition of increase, and even the condi- 
tion of continued possession. This principle is of 
universal application in God's government of men. 
It is a law universally operative, both in its natural 
and its spiritual application. It operates in all the 
gifts and endowments of Providence. 

I. It operates as to our bodily gifts and endow- 
ments. Bodily activity is the condition of .health 
and growth, of strength and beauty. 

If a limb be not exercised it ceases to grow and 
ultimately withers, but judicious exercise increases 
its vigor. If any organ be not exercised it loses the 



436 THE PARABLE 

power to discharge its function, but judicious exer- 
cise increases that power. Thus it is with the eye. 
For instance, the eyes of sailors, and the eyes and 
ears of savages, in whom these organs, by exercise, 
acquire increased power. In the case of persons 
who have lost one sense, their other senses are gen- 
erally strengthened and sharpened by increased ex- 
ercise. 

These examples suffice to show that exercise is 
the condition of increase in our bodily powers and 
organs. But it is also the condition of outward pos- 
session. Unless our members and organs be exer- 
cised, they waste away and perish. This is illustrated 
by the fact that the fish in Mammoth Cave, through 
disuse of their eyes, have become sightless. If the 
body run below a certain point in vitality and 
strength it perishes — perishes because it becomes 
too weak to endure that exercise necessary for its 
preservation. It can not take food, sleep, air and 
exercise, and hence dies. But as long as it remains 
above that minimum point, it is capable of activity, 
and action increases its power. 

2. The same law holds as to mind. Brain not 
exercised loses its power more and more, and hastens 
to premature mental and moral decay. But if there 
be judicious early training, and that training be kept 
up constantly, vigorously and systematically, there 
is no ascertained limit to the capacity for increase. 

This is seen in early training for some trade or 
vocation in hfe. Take two youths of equal age and 
powers ; let them be both put into preparation for 
the same handicraft or profession ; let one be attent- 



OF THE POUNDS. 



437 



ive and energetic, and the other h'stless and torpid 
— what is the result? The one who is Hstless and 
idle learns but little, and disciplines and develops 
his faculties but little. When he enters upon his 
calling he has but little power or skill, meets with 
but indifferent success, and receives but little patron- 
age. This is discouraging — having but little busi- 
ness, he makes no improvement in skill, loses heart, 
and hope, and comfort in his calling more and more, 
and soon total discouragement and failure ensue. 
The other is industrious; his faculties are sharpened 
and strengthened, and he becomes deft; he enters 
on his calling with some reputation, and rapidly in- 
creases it; skill brings friends and patrons, business 
and wealth; patronage gives increasing work and 
wealth; work gives increasing experience and skill; 
friends, patrons, skill and wealth bring increasing 
heart and hope ; all these act and re -act, each increas- 
ing and intensifying the other, until, from age or the 
abundance of success, further effort becomes unneces- 
sary and is abandoned. 

Besides, the patronage which forsook the idle and 
unskilled rival is attracted to the successful competi- 
tor, thus exemplifying the law: '* Whosoever hath, 
to him shall be given, and he shall have more abun- 
dance."* Such is the law which obtains in all the 
walks and vocations of life. 

We might illustrate this law in its operations in 
the higher fields of intellectual labor; in all the 
walks of learning, and in all the ranges of scientific 
and philosophic activity. Take two youths — stu- 

'* Matthew xiii. 12. 



438 "THE PARABLE 

dents — gifted with equal powers; as before, let one 
be active, the other idle. These be the results: The 
idle student acquires no discipline or development 
of his powers; his faculties do not grow in sharp- 
ness or vigor. Hence to him study is always a task, 
a drudgery — never a pleasure and an enthusiastic 
joy. He makes but little progress, achieves no 
triumphs, gets no honors or rewards. No promo- 
tions are in prospect; he is not sought for by the 
wise and learned ; he becomes discouraged more and 
more; his life is a failure. But the active, steady, 
persevering student by and by comes to know how 
to use his powers. Use increases them. More and 
more rapidly and easily he makes acquisitions. Ac- 
quisition brings esteem and influence. Great and 
kindred minds are drawn around him, and excite, 
stimulate and aid him. He makes new efforts, ac- 
quires increase of power, and learning, and friends, 
and influence. Being encouraged, he redoubles his 
efforts, cmd so his pleasure and success are increased. 
At length study becomes his meat and his drink, 
thought and truth his life-blood, and science and 
philosophy the element in which he lives, and 
moves, and has his being. 

The operation of the same law is seen in the ac- 
quisition oi wealth. ''A rich man's wealth is his 
strong city, but the destruction of the poor is their 
poverty."* Poverty and riches do each tend to 
intensify and perpetuate themselves. There is a 
constant tendency in the very poor to become 
poorer and poorer, and in the rich to become richer 

* Proverbs x. 15. 



OF THE POUNDS. 



439 



and richer. The very poor have not the means of 
physical, intellectual and moral culture, and every 
accident and sorrow of life is likely to put them 
lower and lower. On the contrary, great wealth, 
beyond a certain point, tends to increase more and 
more, and to fall into fewer and fewer hands. There 
are two hundred private fortunes in Christendom, 
which, if those who inherit, shall be able to keep 
and manage them, will in less than a century swal- 
low all the capital of Christendom and of the whole 
world. 

If society would not have these diverse tenden- 
cies to increase until it shall be swallowed up and 
destroyed by its own ignorant and vicious pau- 
pers, it must care for the poor. It must see that its 
children are not brought up in ignorance and vice- 
that its orphans and widows and unprotected women 
be furnished with homes and industrial institutions. 
There must be children's homes, homes for the 
friendless and helpless, reformatories for the fallen 
and for juvenile criminals. Capital must not be 
permitted to oppress the hireling in his wages. 
There are palatial residences in all our large cities 
built of the tears and blood of the unrequited poor. 
Oh, if those marble halls and those splendidly fur- 
nished apartments had only a tongue to tell over, 
day by day, the tears, and sighs, and agonies of the 
half-paid laborers, whose ill-requited toil erected 
them, and if the sad story resounded daily in the 
ears of the proud and pampered inmates of those 
lordly mansions, all their pleasures and joys would 
be turned to gloom, and fear, and despair. But let 



440 THE PARABLE 

them remember, and let them tremble in the remem- 
brance, that there is a just God who sees and hears 
all things, and who will visit deep and eternal ven- 
geance not only on those who *' defraud,'' but also 
on those who '* oppress" the hireling in his wages. 
This day* there is more '* oppression " of the hire- 
ling in the large cities of Christendom than there 
ever was of the slave in the rural districts of the 
Southern States a few years ago. This day there is 
more heart-ache, more hard struggle for life, more 
lives going prematurely out from sheer exhaustion, 
among the virtuous laboring poor of our large cities 
who are '* oppressed" in their wages, than there 
ever were among an equal number of slaves in the 
agricultural districts. This day, while New York or 
Boston or Cincinnati are saying to South Carolina, 
*'Let me pull the mote out of thine eye," the other 
may, in all justice, reply, ^'Thou hypocrite, first 
cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then 
shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of 
thy brother's eye." This by the way. 

I proceed to remark that the operation of this law 
may be seen as clearly in societies as in individuals. 
Those nations that have civilization and the gospel 
are constantly rising to higher and higher degrees 
of wealth, education, science, art, and social, civil, 
and political power ; while the savage and barbarous 
races are more and more declining and wasting 
away. The one class have used, and by using have 
increased, all their endowments and resources; the 
other have not used them, and are perishing from 

-The year 1868— Ed. 



OF THE POUNDS. 44 1 

the earth. For example, the Americans and Amer- 
ican Indians, the Anglo-Saxons and American Span- 
iards, the inhabitants of Europe and the population 
of Polynesia. 

The same thing is exhibited among the various 
tribes and families of Christendom. A few of the 
stronger and better tribes and races are swallowing 
up the others. Four centuries ago we had almost 
no kingdoms or empires in the modern sense — all 
was feudalism. Now all is reversed. The better 
and the hardier tribes absorbed the others and be- 
came empires, and the process is still going on. 
The tendency is to absorption ; and it looks as if 
the Teutonic stock, both in Europe and in this 
country, would swallow up all the others. 

But I weary you with this amplitude of illustra- 
tion. T/ie text asserts the law under consideration with 
a special feference to its bearing on our moral and relig- 
ious destinies. In this aspect let us proceed to con- 
sider it. To all God has given moral and religious 
endowments and advantages, which, if they use and 
improve, they will increase eternally; and which, if 
they use and improve not, they shall lose forever. 

I. God has given us a moral and religious nature. 
He has given us faculties to apprehend moral and re- 
ligious truth, and susceptibilities to be influenced 
and controlled by it ; he has given us a divine reve- 
lation of truth and duty for our guidance and salva- 
tion ; he has given us his Church, and the ordinances 
of his grace, and offers to give us the Holy Spirit in 
our hearts — and all this that we may be enlightened, 
renewed, converted, sanctified and saved; made 



442 "THE PARABLE 

holy, and useful, and happy in this Hfe, and pre- 
pared for the eternal glory in the life which is to 
come. The same law of use and increase, of non- 
use and forfeiture, which we have seen to prevail 
elsewhere, finds here its most intense and peculiar 
application. 

Our religious powers and susceptibilities are pe- 
culiarly active and efficient in youth ; and unless they 
be then improved they fall into decay; and if they 
be left unimproved until middle life, or old age, in 
every case they fall into an almost irreparable decay. 
Conversions become rare after forty, and at sixty or 
"Seventy are almost unknown. A man hardly sees 
two such examples in a lifetime. The few that are 
converted after middle life seldom are found among 
the brighter and better examples of Christianity. 
They seldom shine. Almost always do they bear 
the fatal marks of a past life of sin. On the con- 
trary, the examples of those who neglected early 
piety, until they became an utter irretrievable moral 
ruin, are numerous and conspicuous in almost every 
community. 

{a) They make a wreck of conscience. They 
neglect it, wound it, defy it, and it becomes hard, 
seared, defiled, perverted, until it calls evil good, 
and good evil, puts darkness for light, and light for 
darkness. 

(b) They make a wreck of their convictions ; con- 
victions concerning sin, righteousness and judgment; 
concerning God, heaven and hell. These convic- 
tions, which all have, especially in youth, are stifled, 
resisted and destroyed. Little by little they die out 



OF THE POUNDS, 



443 



and vanish, and the soul is left in darkness and dead- 
ness, in unbelief, worldliness and sensuality. The 
day of grace passes, and the season of opportunity 
ends forever. 

Some, on the other hand, cherish these convic- 
tions, yield to them, become true and happy Chris- 
tians in the morning of their days, and thenceforth 
go on growing and increasing in all good forever. 

{c) They lose all self-control. Some yield to tip- 
pling, gluttony, unchastity, and to all the sensual 
appetites, until all power of resistance is gone, and 
they are enslaved and lost. They yield to anger, 
revenge, malice, envy, and all the irascible and 
malignant passions, until they are overpowered and 
mastered by them. But those who mortify all these, 
and cherish the opposite graces, become more and 
more like Christ, attain to an everlasting inheritance 
of beauty and joy, and shine, and sing, and reign 
forever. 

2. In addition to these moral and religious endow- 
ments and opportunities common to all, God has to 
many given saving grace. He has sent his Holy 
Spirit, convicting, converting, renewing and sancti- 
fying them, and with this new-covenant relation and 
life, he has given the capacity and the impulse to labor 
in the zvorld for his glory, for the edification of the 
Church, and for the conversion and salvation of sinners. 
He has given to each and all their gifts, talents, 
places and work.* 

If we yield to this impulse, if we exercise our 
gifts and graces, they increase, and we become skill- 

■'•' Matthew xxiv. 45-51; xxv. 14 30. 



444 ^^^ PARABLE 

ful in dealing with both saints and sinners in the 
matters pertaining to salvation. Our powers increase. 
With success new doors and larger fields open up to 
our efforts; new and larger labors give more experi- 
ence, and skill, and strength ; all who love God come 
to know us — their society, counsel and experience 
aid us and cheer us, and we become more hopeful, 
earnest, efficient and successful laborers in the king- 
dom and cause of Christ. 

But if we check these impulses, and restrain our 
new-born energies, we soon lose those gifts and that 
power; we are awkward, and stiff, and weak, and 
inefficient; we grieve the Spirit; the locks of the 
young Samson never grow; we accomplish but lit- 
tle, and, as a consequence, must wear a starless 
crown in heaven; and often are doomed to go 
mourning here, uncertain of our state, harassed with 
fears and tormented with temptations we had other- 
wise escaped. 

3. Thus it is with courage and decision. If we 
do not exercise them we lose them. If we yield to 
little temptations — tippling, worldly conformity, 
worldly conversation and calls on the Sabbath, bad 
thoughts — we must yield a little more and a little 
more, until all is gone. Give Satan an inch and he 
will demand an ell. If we resist promptly and de- 
cisively, our courage is confirmed. '* Resist the 
devil and he will flee from you."^ 

4. Thus it is with the spirit of prayer. If we im- 
prove it we have more grace, more communion, 
more faith and assurance, more humble, holy bold- 

* James iv. 7. 



OF THE POUNDS. 



445 



ness, more power. If we do not improve it, then 
we need expect no aid, no blessing; but strangeness 
and distrust, darkness, fear and unbelief — spiritual 
bankruptcy. 

5. So with charity and all the graces. The more 
they are exercised, the more they grow; the less 
they are exercised, the less they grow. 



THE END. 



7 53 



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